[kabar]

A lot of these "children" were 18, like Natalee.

Exactly. We are talking about young adults. At 18, they can vote and get a fulltime job, including joining the military. About 50% of 18 year old Americans do exactly that.

[GB]

1. The age of 18 doesn't automatically translate into "young adulthood," IMHO, regardless of whether one can vote, drink, work or fight in a war at that age. I think adulthood encompasses many things, not just chronological age.

2. Referring to another post, as far as chapherones, correct me if I'm wrong but didn't the mayor of Mountain Brook say on Larry King the other night that these seven people WERE NOT chapherones, that they were considered "facilitators" to try to help make things easier for the kids, but that there were no actual chapherones and that the parents who sent their kids on this trip knew that up front?

[johnb838]

They can also drink, legally, in Aruba. It's a good point. Still, something's funny about the way she left and the details from the bar are still so sketchy. "She was seen getting into a silver Honda". That's still all we know. Well, who saw her?

[libsl]

FoxNews was reporting yesterday that Natalee is 17, not 18. I'm not sure why, if that is so, initial sources have misreported her age. It certainly covers a lot of people's a$$e$ to say she is 18 rather than 17.