Should Teens Have Privacy?

Maliyah Jordan

Ms. Mckoy

English 2

10 September 2013

Should Teens have a right to privacy?

Does your Mother or Father ever ask for your phone? Are they lingering over your shoulder when you are on Facebook or texting someone?  Parents think that standing over our shoulders is going to stop teens from texting, tweeting, or posting a status. In actuality it is going to move us further away from our parents. Teenagers should have a right to privacy, correct.

As of 2012 75% of teens have their own cell phone (21 Reasons). The majority of teens use their phone for social media. Twenty-Two of teens report logging on to their favorite social media site (Facebook, Twitter or Instagram) over 10 times a day. 40% of parents look at their kids Facebook profile for safety reasons and 15% look out of curiosity. Information tip for parent's Facebook has a privacy setting and if that privacy setting is on no one can view their profile. Secondly you have to be 13 or older to get an email or Facebook page. Furthermore if you allowed your child to have a phone and interact on social media you must trust him/her, so why are you snooping around?

As a teen we don't do activities when  we want when we want to. We have to do it on our parent's time. Anytime I'm on the phone or on Facebook it's constantly "Who are you talking to?" "Is it a boy?" "Let me look through your messages." Sneaking on your child's phone or social media is lazy parenting. Children, especially the youngest, are "dependent upon their parents and require an intense and intimate relationship with their parents to satisfy their physical and emotional needs." Just talk about the dangers of internet usage and put certain restrictions or basics down. "The key is for parents and children to talk regularly about the experiences of the child online." (New York Times) There are other ways for a parent to administer parental controls; Non invading ways.

Doing these new techniques of child monitoring leaves more time with your children. Content filtering and Privacy Protection are two of the various ways to supervise a child. Since you are educated on the matter of a child's privacy you can see why its lazy parenting on your part plus it's awfully stressful on a teenager’s behalf, having to look over their shoulder and put screen locks on phones just to be safe. "Privacy is not equal to freedom" Freedom is the state or condition of being free from being observed or disturbed by other people. Being 15, limited monitoring is acceptable but constant motoring is unnecessary and uncalled for. Just think if the roles were switched it would not be as unpleasant for parents as it is us teens. School, Work, and Family the pressures of a teenagers life out down time is spent posting, tweeting and on instagram. Is it too much to ask that we simply text a friend without being hounded.