Currently, children have literally no privacy rights except those given to them by their parents. This means that a parent has the right to take away a child's door, walk into a child's room at any time, and also, if the child has a phone, read through their messages. Do you think that a child should have the same privacy rights as of age adults? Or do you think that the parents should be able to barge into a child's life at any moment?
The parents usually pay for the phone, the housebill, and everything else a child has, so its technically theres. Not too mention they're under 18. I do believe they should be entitled to some sort of privacy though.
On another note, do Children have privacy anywhere? Do authority figures such as teachers have a right to go through your phone when they take them? That used to happen alot to me in middle school, sometimes i even had to go to the principals office to be interrogated about text messages. Personally i find it outrageous.
When we say children, we're talking below age 13 and above 4, right? As children get older, the amount of privacy they require will increase. Children having no privacy rights does not mean a parent will actually perform all those details, including the part about taking away their door. Young children require adult accompanying them at most times, mostly for the learning and safety processes, the other slice of the pie for bonding. There is a boundary to how much accompanying is sensible though. It goes without saying that small children don't require accompanying for sleeping or playing with toys (unless toys have small parts), but definitely require supervision for taking a bath, eating, walking outside, the general handling-or-interacting-with-things-that-are-beyond-their-scope-of-knowledge deal.
But like I said earlier, as children get older, the amount of supervision they require gets lesser and lesser. Obviously because they have learned enough in an area that they can do "this" on their own. And it goes without saying that teenagers will often want to have privacy to themselves, especially in their room. Even at 13-18, parent interaction is important. I can never stress enough how the disposition of the child to parents can be greater if more interaction is involved. Parents check up on child, child is in distress or has a problem, parents either solve the problem or help comfort child, family is better for the moments they shared. Of course that doesn't mean the family heads are given free passes to the child's room at every given time and moment. It's their job to figure out when and why the child wants to be left alone and be okay with it.
To the cellphone issue! This will be shorter. I can see why parents would want to look into the contents of the cellphone and it's most definitely for safety concerns. The teenager may know whom he/she is texting/calling, or for argument's sake "think he/she knows", but that does not mean the parents do. It's why they feel better most of the time when their children are in the house. It's also why they question every little detail when the child wishes to leave the house for an event like a party and maybe even preventing them from going. It's a safety issue.
Do authority figures such as teachers have a right to go through your phone when they take them?
I will say "no way in hell" they do, unless there are troubling circumstances. Whatever they might be. Teachers have the authority to take your cellphone when they are being used in class (which is good, because excessive cellphone usage in class is just plain rude), but they don't have the authority or the right to look through text messages or calls.
Freakenstein, what if the searching of the cell phone is completely unwarranted? How could the child, who has had no problems with trusting a parent in the past, be able to continue this trust with them in the future?
You have to remember your parents/guardians own the house you are in and I guess most of the stuff so they legally have the right to do what they want with the house but that doesn't make it right.
Or do you think that the parents should be able to barge into a child's life at any moment?
Yes but they should have the decency to knock because that annoys the crap out of me because if they barge in it shows they think your up to something which annoys me so much because they obviously have a trust issue.
if the child has a phone, read through their messages
If the child owns the phone no because thats pretty much stealing in a way but if the child doesn't own it then again legally they can.
Being young sucks but you have to remember if you don't own it then you can't have much of a say about it
Privacy rights protect people from the government, not each other. Property rights, on the other hand, allows people to make rules for the property they are on. Basically, if I own a house, I'm allowed privacy within my own property. This means that if a father owns a house, he can do whatever he wants. This doesn't mean that everything he does is right, but he has the ability to act in such a way.
