Responsibility is the state or fact of being reliable or dependable, as in doing what they promise, and fulfilling duty. There are different types of responsibility such as accountability, moral or legal responsibility.
To be held responsible for something means to take the consequences for something that happened. This may include blame and/or punishment for something bad that happened. When that something was not necessarily performed by the person, if they fail to stop, or take reasonable precautions against the something from happening, it is called acting irresponsibly which in itself can be an offense worthy of chastisement.
Responsibility and ageEdit
Irresponsibility is associated with immaturity, and an important goal of teaching children discipline is to teach responsibility. So while a child well be held less responsible, they will still be held responsible for actions they are deemed to "know better". When two or more children get in trouble together, particularly siblings, the oldest one is often held more responsible in this regard, as they are seen to be in leadership, a position inherent with responsibility for others. Also young adults that show irresponsible behaviour are often admonished to "grow up" due to this immaturity association.
See also age inappropriate behavior.