9. Discussion

1) What do adolescents’ parents often complain about?

2) What are the puzzles of adolescence?

3) How will the teenager show he/ she is upset?

4) What is particularly important for adolescents’ parents?

5) What can be a great source of stability for the adolescent?

6) What helps teenagers make wise choices?

7) What is teenagers’ usual attitude to rules and limits?

8) The author says “the adolescent needs parents to struggle against, to have rows with.” Do you think this is right?

9) Do teenagers need limits or restrictions? Why?

10) Why do teenagers try to cut themselves off from the family for a while?

11) What kind of behaviour should really alarm the parents?

10. Read the text below and do the assignment that follow it.

BUILDING UP TROUBLE

Hiring a private detective at 250£ a day can be quite costly but that doesn’t put many parents off. In fact, spying on teenagers is a growing trend nowadays. So what is it that parents are so intrigued to find out? It seems that the most common answers will be: who their child is hanging out with, whether he or she is up to no good and what their boyfriend or girlfriend is really like. But why don’t these parents just talk to their kids about their worries?

One detective who is often hired by parents to watch their children says, “Parents aren’t always aware of what teenagers are up to; they don’t talk to them and don’t know what’s going on in their lives. And I generally find that parents are much more worried about their daughters than their sons. Probably because girls are more secretive than boys.”

Rather worryingly, a legal advisor confessed, “There is no longer real privacy in England. As long as he or she doesn’t trespass on your property, it is perfectly legal for a detective to take pictures of you or record what you say. And if a parent owns the phone he or she gave the child the parent can let a hired detective tap it. One is not allowed to interfere with personal property such as private letters but one may read them if they’re left in view.”

Naturally, human rights groups see this as a worrying trend. Although they wouldn’t argue that it should be against the law for parents to spy like this, they strongly believe that private detective agencies ought to be properly regulated to ensure they act responsibly in respect to this sensitive issue. At least, certain limits should be imposed on what can and cannot be done.

Many people are convinced that parents’ spying on children is a terrible invasion of privacy, like reading someone else’s diary. Besides, it will only make the relationship between parents and their children worse. Even if they do find out their children have been misbehaving, how are they going to explain where they got their information from? And children are unlikely to want to discuss a problem with their parents once they discover they’ve been spied on. They are quite unlikely to forget such a blow to their personal freedom.

Will we ever be free form the risk of being tracked? Or will all our privacy vanish completely? Then, we will always be looking over our shoulders – in a society where security cameras film our every move.

However, we can all help stop the number of teen investigators growing. It is all down to family members communicating with each other. If everyone started speaking to each other honestly, secrets and suspicion could become a thing of the past. So, let us just hope for the best.