Teenagers Should Be Allowed More Privacy Essay

While not always seen, overall, teenagers get far less privacy than adults do. Between schools checking through the belongings of their students without solid evidence to allow it, or parents monitoring the activity of their children online, teenagers today are subject to much of their privacy being taken away. It is true that this can sometimes be helpful in busting drug dealers or keeping teenagers from getting involved with bad habits online. However, it can also have an adverse effect, ruining the relationship between a parent and his or her child, or other relationships throughout the rest of the teenager’s life. Teenagers should be allowed more privacy, if not as much as adults have, as it will keep them less fearful, as well as help to keep their interpersonal relationships strong and their emotions in a good state.
Occasionally, certain instances have occurred in which school administrators or staff members have been allowed or instructed to search through the personal belongings of students, sometimes without the

“probable cause” that is usually needed for cases involving adults, and only a “reasonable suspicion” that something is wrong (Keilman, Berger). This can cause stress within all of the students in the school, whether or not anyone was punished. Students become anxious, wondering if they’ll get falsely accused for a crime they didn’t commit, or if their friends will get caught doing something they didn’t know about. Whenever the police bring police dogs to schools, students are immediately talking amongst each other while they’re in class, asking if they knew anyone who had brought drugs to school and such. It causes a small chaos amongst students, as they can search anyone’s belongings without any sort of warrant, just an assumption that they possess something illegal.
A great example of this kind of situation was shown at Stevenson High School in Illinois, where students’ cell phones were confiscated by police in an attempt to stop drugs sales at the school. They looked through the texts of students to figure out who sold and purchased the drugs at school, yet many students who attended Stevenson and their parents saw it as an extreme invasion of their privacy. It also caused a mass panic throughout the students, with one student being seen running out of the office and smashing his phone on the ground (Keilman, Berger). Most students became quickly accustomed to leaving their phones at school, in fear of it being taken and searched through. They did not want to have their belongings searched, even if they did nothing wrong. Through all of the privacy invasions at school, are even more at home between parents and their teenagers.
Some parents can be far too controlling and far too watchful over the lives of their children. These parents are commonly known as “helicopter parents” because of how they hover over the lives of their children, much like a helicopter. This type of parenting is often out of fear for what could happen to their child, yet most of the time, the child would be fine. As said by Anne Michaud, “We say we want them to grow up to be risk-takers, but then don’t allow them to experience risk.” (Michaud) By saying this, she realizes that most parents tell children to take a gamble once in awhile in life, but when the children attempt to do so, they are immediately advised against it. This can cause the child to be very sheltered, yet once those children grow to be adults, they experience an overwhelming amount of newfound freedom. This often has a negative effect on the child’s life, as they do not know what to do with all this new time, and so they waste it away on frivolous activities instead of doing the things that they need to be doing. Despite its other problems, helicopter parenting can also have a cynical effect on the relationship between teenagers and their parents.
A parent who tries too hard to control their children can cause the children to become less open when talking with their parents.

These parents might monitor their child’s activity online or constantly check their child’s texts. By doing this, they can really scare off their teenagers from talking to them, and make them anxious. They would constantly wonder if their parents were looking over their shoulder, watching everything they did. This would put a lot of emotional pressure on these teenagers, who are already dealing with lots of emotions through hormones and puberty changes. The children would begin to look for new ways to keep their life private from their parents, which can lead to things such as creating fake accounts to hide their activity online. This might lead to the children keeping more and more secrets from their parents, which, if revealed to said parents, can cause more problems in the relationship between parent and

child.
The negative effects on a teenager’s relationship with his or her parents can be psychologically devastating to that teenager in the long run. The secrecy and privacy that these teenagers develop can stick with them for the rest of their lives, which can destroy other interpersonal relationships of theirs. Friendships or romantic partnerships are constantly destroyed when one person keeps secrets from the other, but these teenagers might have fears or concerns about talking to the other person in the relationship that stem from these problems that they experienced earlier in life. When these teenagers have to be open with someone, they won’t know how because they will be so used to keeping it all inside and hidden. Mental issues such as these can also cause strong feelings of being alone or detached, leading to yet even more problems with family and friends.
In opposition to having more privacy given to teenagers, claims that less privacy can help them to be safer appear. While a parent monitoring the activity of their child might help to keep them safer in some cases, most of the time, nothing is actually going wrong. It also stresses out the child if he or she finds out they are being monitored or watched online. Also, if a parent keeps his or her child too far removed from certain harmful activities such as drugs or sexual situations without properly informing them of why those things are bad, it could lead the child to be more curious and more willing to give it a try. This curiosity could lead towards drug or sexual addictions that they won’t know how to stop, and they won’t try to talk to anyone about it because they will be too fearful of opening themselves up to someone.
Another point that is made by those supporting teenagers having less privacy is that these teenagers could be participating in unhealthy activities behind their parents’ backs. Keeping tabs on the activities of these children would stop this from occurring. At least, that is what people who want teenagers to have less privacy attempt to argue. However, the more likely outcome of this spying would be that these sneaky teenagerss would just make a more concentrated effort to keep their acts out of sight and away from their their parent’s knowledge. If their parents found out about this, it could just worsen the situation for both parties involved.
In conclusion, the common privacy invasions that teenagers deal with causes them to be more secluded and weakens relationships between parents and their children. It also heavily stresses out these teenagers, who are often worried that they will get caught and punished for what they have been hiding. All in all, this causes lots of internal pain on these teenagers, which can result in them being more protective and secretive as they get older, hiding everything about their lives from others.