At Seventeen (September 1, 2025)

Where has the time flown? I remember her youthful innocence, so well. (And I’m not referring to Janis Ian.) On Monday, Miss B. will be 17! Can you believe it? I remember how it felt to be that age, way back when, but the current state of play in Canada and elsewhere is that young people are still at risk.

Of what? you ask: sexual exploitation. The key seems to be that the sexual partner must not be more than two years older than the younger person. Only when the individual reaches 18 in Canada does that distinction fall away.

Like all teenagers, Miss B. is trying to skirt her parents’ rules and regulations, which means that she hides her real intentions behind the usual instances of going out with “friends.” Her dad is wise to all the ruses she uses, having raised two teenagers before her. Unbeknownst to her, he can track her cellphone. That means he can tell, for example, if she’s in a car being driven over the speed limit, just by comparing starting and ending locations and calculating the time it takes for the journey. Miss B. didn’t realize that. The other way of control is just reviewing her online usage. You can tell what is on a person’s mind just by seeing what their internet searches are. Does that seem excessive to you?

At this delicate age, everyone thinks they’re grown up. That’s probably Nature’s way of ensuring the continuation of the species, but these days it may seem too early to be experiencing ‘life’.

As always, the parents have to protect the ‘child’ from making a mistake that may harm their life. But when is it time to loosen the family ties, even just a little? Hmm.