This comes up regularly. There are lots of reasons. We don't want to risk falling foul of anti-child labour laws, which apply in some countries and often include voluntary work. In the UK, where I live, there are laws about "grooming" children for sexual abuse: the popular press here is so enthusiastic about pediaphilia that I would not be prepared to work at OFPEC as an Admin if under 18s were permitted - the risk is simply too great. People under 18 are frequently at school or college, focussing on their education, and we do not wish to allow people even to face the question "schoolwork or ofpecwork?" School is much too important for that. Once you're a bit older, and your whole life is fubar, well then of course then it doesn't matter so much. ;D
But the biggest reason is that, whenever we hire people who are under 18, almost invariably they let us down. Sometimes very badly indeed.
It is true that we are missing out on potentially capable and committed staffers, and we regret that. We regret it so much that we used to give in every now and then and hire somebody under 18. Then they would let us down. We've learnt the lesson, the hard way, several times.
We find that under 18s who want to help out fall into two categories. Those who resent the rule would, in practice, never be hired anyway. The good people, who understand and appreciate the rule (even if they don't like it), either wait patiently until they are old enough and/or get stuck into helping OFPEC in other ways. Suggestions on how to do this in
this thread under "Help".
Occasionally people try to lie about their age. It is pretty rare and we always catch them. In fact I've never seen an attempted deception that wasn't laughable.
Being an OFPEC staffer is skilled work. Only about one applicant in three meets the required standard and it normally takes several months before a new recruit is fully qualified in their job. Reviewing a mission or unpending a tutorial is MUCH more difficult than it sounds. (For example, the instructions for unpending an Ed Depot submission have 84 points: some of these points are links to more detailed instructions. The 84 points are only for general guidance and do not pretend to cover all eventualities.) We will not compromise in quality in order to achieve quantity.