Privacy

The right to privacy is inalienable, but does that apply to children too? Children and adults should have the same rights to privacy to an extent. Limitations for children are always needed but they also deserve the same respect for their boundaries and privacy just like adults do. They also are exploring new ideas and themselves as they grow up and depend on privacy to help them do so. Children should be allowed the same privacy as adults because they are gaining individuality and it allows them to make positive decision making skills.

Gaining individuality is important to one’s character development as they grow up. To do so they need basic things in their life like support and most importantly privacy. Being the age I am now it was extremely important for me to have privacy back when I was in middle school and especially the beginning of high school. It allowed for me to create my own character without everyone needing a reason as to why I did what I did. It also helped me explore self interests and figure out who I was as a person on my own. Privacy helped me to develop individuality because my parents were not in my business making me do the right thing, instead they were letting me figure it out on my own.

Not only is having privacy extremely important for developing a character, but it is the most basic right that you could give to someone. Although being back in my 7th grade self’s shoes, I wish I was given more limitations along with my privacy. Having a phone at that age was important because I needed a way to be able to get into contact with my parents, so they gave me the benefit of the doubt and gave me the privacy I deserved. Although I wasn’t using the phone in a shameful way, they still should have set limitations because I was so young. Children should not have access to be able to talk to random people online or have social media posting things that do not need to be shared about themselves. Children deserve privacy but they need limitations because even though it is still a basic right, even for children, they’re still children.

Others might believe that children do not deserve the right to privacy like adults do because they do not know any better or cannot be trusted to make the right decisions. Although they could be correct because a child should still be parented and supervised, they need to learn on their own how to make correct choices. Without a way for them to have their own thoughts and decision making process, they won’t develop the basic skill of thinking before acting.

Adults and children both not only deserve the right to privacy, but need it. It allows for them to develop individuality and it can create a way for them to enhance their decision making skills for their life to be more important.

“data privacy” by stockcatalog is licensed under CC BY 2.0.