Teen Rights. Good or bad?

I read this bit in Time magazine waiting for my mom to pick me up from the orthodontist’s office (4 years in these stupid braces… and more to come… ugh)
Here’s a link to the article: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1604945,00.html

The article, by John Cloud, claims that teens are more sober, less violent, and more responsible than ever, and that perhaps we should have the same rights as adults. The author cites stats obtained by a survey of teens to show that teen drinking and drug use have gone down, and suggests that perhaps we should abolish the concept of adolescence completely.
The possibilities of this are terrific… and terrifying. Getting rid of the teen years would lower voting age, smoking age, drinking age, and tons of other stuff. And if you let us do some of that stuff, a lot of us will. Robert Epstein wrote “The Case against Adolescence” a book on this topic. The quote that made me uneasy was the one where Epstein says that if a teen can pass a maturity test, they should be allowed to legally view porn. Yeah… right.
Some of this suggestion has merit- I think teens should be allowed to vote after they can pass a test, own businesses, and maybe property, but the majority of this is downright hypocritical. Let teens drink and watch porn because they’re staying sober and studying better? That seems to be sending out the wrong message.
John Cloud doesn’t seem to think that giving young people ANY rights is a good idea. He admits in a debate ( http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1605109,00.html ) between the two authors that he doesn’t have constant contact with teens. He actually said: “that would be a little creepy” when Epstein asked. The debate is pretty equally matched, and both participants bring up good points- a short and easy read.
My personal take as a young teen: If you make drinking legal for us, it’ll go up (fact of life: tons of teens drink and have been drinking, kids in my 6th grade class got drunk at a party. THIS ISN’T NEW!), some more rights for us would be nice though. If I could vote right now, I would. If I wanted and could get a business, I would. Perhaps the adult population should give the younger generation some leg room, but too much would be very bad. I suggest you read both the article and debate. They’re both really well written and full of info. Comments?