seatbelt schmeatbelt

so recently, the australian government has decided to impose a new safety rule for young passengers. they have decided that it is now a neccessity for a child seven years or younger to be placed in a specially made car seat. when i heard the news, i was slightly baffled and a little annoyed.

why does a seven year old need to have a car seat? i remember being seven, it was only about nine years ago. i was living in holland and my mum drove a red renault twingo. it was a two door car. i went to the BSN and i once navigated family friends, and strangers to the country, from the airport to my house, by myself.

these random facts about my mother's car and other things may seem irrelevant but i can't imagine being able to think they way i did when i was seven, having the maturity i did when i was seven, imploring the reasoning skills and remembering information the way i did when i was seven, yet having to be restrained like some toddler in a car seat.

i guess this leads me to ask, what makes a seven year old so different from a six year old? do you suddenly hit seven and magically obtain powers that make you able to withstand a car crash whilst sitting in an ordinary car seat? physically, i would imagine the difference is not much at all, and even less mentally.

but then you could ask, well if thats so, then whats so different between a six year old and a five year old? or a five year old and a four year old? and before you know it, babies and toddlers are free to sit in a normal passenger seat.

so therefore, there has to be a limit.

a limit is defined as

• 
  
  The point, edge, or line beyond which something cannot or may not proceed.
• 
  
  A confining or restricting object, agent, or influence.
• 
  
  To confine or restrict within a boundary or bounds.
• 
  
  To fix definitely; to specify.

but who decides where the limit lies? is it something measurable? in mathematical cases, the limit can be measured. is it the same, however, for this circumstance? who should make the final decision on this limit? should it be a doctor, who can use their expertise to decide how a child's body will react?

should it be safety testers of cars? who can use their previous experiments to determine a age where a child can protect themselves better when in a crash?

or should it be the mother? who subjectively knows their child better than anyone else? who's child it concerns?

furthermore, i don't recall the rule of having to put a seven year old in a car seat being around when i was younger so why is it so now? why had the old rule suddenly become 'not enough' to protect children? if a limit is a limit can you really limit it further?

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