The younger the age, the less and less specks of light there are that we could have. Once the age gets below 15, it's very questionable whether the applicant is actually "mature", or just doing a good job at acting it.
I became a staff member on another server I used to play on at the age of 13 - I quickly actually jumped the ranks, until I hit what was pretty much the equivalent of admin... (the highest you could get aside from owner.) I quickly came to realize that pretty much everyone else on staff was 16+. I was by far the youngest staff member...but why was this? (Cue bragging

I was one of those specks of light that the Owner was lucky to have picked, as many of the other players that age that were later promoted caused...issues. Over time, I see less and less young users picked, because many of them aren't a speck of light - finding another speck like me isn't worth it for all the trouble it will cause. (The server still runs strong today, with 350 slots that are easily filled during peak time for hours if anyone cares...)
But honestly...I may have been mature for a 13 year old...but was I really all that mature overall? I've thought about it actually, and if I go back far enough into my old posts...I was a completely different person. I hate my old self actually. I'm surprised I got as far in the ranks that I did. I don't believe I was nearly as mature. (granted, back then, the server was pretty tiny - it could use all the staff it could get.) So if I was mature for a 13 year old...how mature are most 13 year olds? (No offense to anyone - but as you get older, you'll realize that you might not have been as mature as you thought you were...unless you were truly really mature. I look at the world differently now than I did a few years ago.)
We understand that there can be some really mature young people out there...but we cannot just do trial and error to find them. Even the most well written applications...unless they were done like Tironas style, I don't believe they should be taken as seriously. If we started promoting everyone under 15 for have a fairly decent applications...it'll just be a mess.
I feel like I'm missing something in this post...if it comes to mind I'll edit it.