Privacy is key

Every teenager has a time in their life when they just want some privacy. Privacy is a great thing to have when you just want a minute by yourself or had a rough day and you want to have a conversation with a friend about it but sometimes it feels like someone is always listening to you. Up until a certain age, teenagers shouldn’t need privacy but with that being said after the age of sixteen teenagers should have the same amount of privacy as an adult.

Teenagers who are below the age of sixteen have nothing but school to worry about. Yes, there may be certain things at school that they don’t want to tell their parents but they don’t have a job, a car, or anything to worry about besides school. People sixteen and above already have responsibilities that an adult already has like myself I have my own car that I take care of, a job and I have to buy everything that I need that my parents would necessarily get. I know many people who are sixteen that already have a job and who have their licenses and car payment to pay while some adults don’t even have a job or really take care of themselves. My friend, for example, has her own car, and a job and takes care of her brother, pets, and her house. All while her mother doesn’t have anything or really does anything. They are taking the role of an adult so they should have privacy like an adult.

Giving a teenager privacy can be scary, they do make mistakes everyone does. Teenagers keep secrets and keep things to themselves all the time. Sixteen is when people start to mature and realize that some things are wrong while other things are okay. I could understand not giving a teenager who is fourteen privacy, they have no idea what is happening in life. I myself am a teenager but I did love that my parents gave me the privacy I needed when I turned sixteen. Privacy is always a good thing to give teenagers because it also shows them how to take on the responsibility of owning up to what they do with their privacy.

We talk about teenagers not being able to be trusted with privacy but when in reality these days even adults don’t know what they did was wrong while having their privacy. Adults these days make very questionable decisions that most teenagers even know better than to do. With privacy, there comes trust so if you can trust a person then you should trust them enough to let them have their own privacy. Yes, they could make a mistake but in the end, it will teach them to grow from that experience.

Privacy is something that should be earned and should be a sort of reward. After the age of sixteen all kids should be able to have just as much privacy as adults unless they have proven that they can’t be trusted with having things away from their parents. Everyone makes mistakes and privacy is something that could be easily ruined. Privacy is a good thing and it could make kids at the end closer to their parents than if they didn’t have it.

“Key” by SioW is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0.