Underage magic enforcement

[dorapye]

No: HPFGUIDX 94706

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "justcarol67" 
<justcarol67 at y...> wrote:
>> 
> Mo wrote:
> <snip> I have always wondered why only STUDENTS were forbiden to 
use
> magic under the decree of Underage Wizadry. .... Now, I don't know 
if
> the ministry doesn't regulate them too much because they aren't old
> enought to have a wand, yet, and their magic can't do anything
> significant. But, I WOULD like to know why they are allowed, and
> Hogwarts student's aren't.
> 
> Carol:
> If, as others have speculated, the underage magic is detected by
> identifying the wand, then a child under eleven would be using 
someone
> else's wand or no wand at all, and the MoM could not identify the
> child who cast the spell. I also think (hope) that it would be the
> parents' responsibility to monitor their young children's behavior.
> Otherwise, the WW would be a police state in which the authorities
> take over the parents' role. It would be like having the local
> sheriff's deputy arresting your child if he swears at his 
grandmother
> in public. (I don't want to get into whether we really have such a
> police state in the RW, which tends to think the parents are at 
fault!)
> 
dorapye:
I suppose it could be similar to a Muggle child reaching an age of 
assumed moral responsibility, where children are deemed *in Legal 
terms* to understand and be able to distinguish between right and 
wrong, and can therefore be held accountable for any crimes they 
commit.  I think that age is 10 years old here in the UK, but I 
guess it may have changed since I last checked...(uh-oh, primary 
school teacher admitting ignorance about children's laws...)

Perhaps, in the WW, it is assumed, not that children pre-Hogwarts 
aren't magically powerful enough to cause the Ministry problems with 
the concealment of Magic from Muggles, or to cause Magical 
Accidents, but that they are not 'morally accountable' for the magic 
that they may do, with their Dad's wand, their own wand (?what are 
the laws there?) or without a wand at all.

After a year at Hogwarts however, and for Muggle-borns their 
induction into the WW, it is considered that the young person is 
capable of adhering to the rules and controlling Accidental Wandless 
Magic, so they are subject to the WW Laws about Underage Wizardry.

Just an idea. How does it hold up?

dorapye