I like the age exception, as it makes the jobs of the Sr. Mods easier. It's a given that most young children will not have the mental and organizational capabilities to manage the responsibility of the position. That said, if a 10 year old wants to apply for mod and sees the age exception, he'll probably just turn back there. Without the age exception, and the apps being judged solely on quality, the 10 year old will apply with a mediocre app, then a Sr. Mod will have to deny it for lack of information. It might not sound like a lot of work, but imagine the already high influx of mod apps, which is about 30 per week. Opening the flood gates to the rest of the younger portion of the community will cause a massive wall of apps that lack quality purely because of the applicants' age. Granted, there's always going to be that 1 applicant in 100 young community members with the capability to be mod, but that's what the age exception process is for. I think the system is good the way it is, and it saves time for everyone.