Dear Military recruiters...stay the hell away from my son!

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

36. The state we lived in didn't have graudated drivers' licenses.

All I can tell you is that one son told me that when he got his DL he had to register, and the other simply reported filling out a form. That second son didn't get a DL until he was at least 20.

Neither son was applying for financial aid at college, and obviously lots of kids, especially those who don't go to college or who attend a low cost community college and don't apply for aid aren't affected by that.

It's not an issue of how long it is before you run into long term benefits problems, but as has already been noted, there's the potential for a large financial and prison penalty, although I doubt that is often enforced. Men have until age 25 to register, and again, I suspect that if your son registers a few years late, the federal government won't really care.

A google search shows that 90% of young men do register. Only 10% don't, which strikes me as pretty impressive. I bet most of the 10% are genuinely unaware that they are supposed to register, and simply never are in a situation where it's an issue.

So if you want to encourage your son not to register when he should, it probably won't have any consequences. Unless he applies for financial aid at college. Or wants to take a federal job, or federal training of any kind. Again, neither of my sons has ever done any of those things, although they did register when they were supposed to.

Also, since it's been a requirement to get a Social Security number at birth for about 30 years now, I suspect the government knows exactly who is turning 18 every year.