Would giving 16-year-olds the vote improve democracy or just change the way campaigns are run?

The world is ruled by old men, but will lowering the voting age to 16 change anything except the campaigns? My answer to that question is no, let me explain myself.

Firstly, even if the voting age is lowered to 16, that doesn’t change the fact that there are very little young representatives, which is supported by the fact that there is a trend of UK MP's being, on average, around 50 years old for the last 50 years. Secondly, young people are a minority: statistics show that only 18,2% of people it the UK are between the ages of 15 – 29, so they are heavily outnumbered, plus the fact that the older populus has more people that represent them.

Someone could say that there would be enough people to make a change if we lowered the voting age. My counter argument is: even if we disregard how little of a dent that would make, young people can still be manipulated by the media, even more so today with short form content being at the peak of media and how little thought is put into watching it.

To conclude, I think that introducing 16-year-olds into the voting system would not change much, except giving teenagers the illusion of having control. I think the only way to actually change anything is for more young people to enter the political space and try to fight for a change, because if we do nothing, nothing will change.