Ethics Of Care

Introduction: Teens are always complaining about their parents being nosy and never giving them the space they want. They feel like they have the right to privacy. Parents have the right to care and set rules in the house to make sure their child is okay. Ethics of care (which is associated with virtue ethics) is a perspective on moral issue that emphasizes close personal relationships and moral virtues such as compassion, love, and sympathy. I’m not arguing that parents should invade their child’s privacy, but that they have the right to.
Thesis: Parents have the right to invade their child’s privacy because they care and are obligated to protect those, they care about.
Synthesis: Ethics of care focuses on the caring of relations rather than virtues of individuals. A parent biggest fear is having to live longer than their child. Parents care too much, so when they invade their child’s privacy it is out of love. Teens should have some privacy, but there should be rules set so the parent can feel safe and happy because the child is. Ethics of care is a reminder that caring is a vital and inescapable part of the moral life. Teenagers have been cared for ever since birth and tend to anticipate that their parents will keep on taking care of them. They don't really behave in a mature way around their parents as they do around others when
they are not with their parents. So, you have teens who are behaving a bit less mature than they can and should.
Furthermore, you have parents who see that and by habit imagine the teen to be younger than they may be, (understanding that teens are still in their teen years and not full adults). Parents try to protect by overseeing teens. Teens try to become more independent and powerful in their own lives by pushing back and even rebelling. Parents make it their priority to watch over their child, as quoted in Nancy Darling article, “The job of a parent is to protect and socialize their children.” Ethics of care also shows empathy and mutual understanding.
Parents want their child to have some freedom, but in today’s world, freedom can be unhealthy, harmful and even dangerous. The world has always been dangerous with murder, robbing banks, kidnapping etc... But in society today is worse than it was before when it comes to bullying because now we have technology and the internet where we freely speak our opinions on someone else’s life or the doings in the world. It effects everyone because people care about what others say about them leading to bullying or something worst. Back then there were bullies just as it is today, but now in today’s society there’s also cyber bullying. Parents have the right to worry about their kid especially when they don’t know what’s going on in their kids world virtually also.
Objections: I interviewed 30 parents, and asked if they think it is alright to invade their child privacy.
24 out of 30 (which is 80%) of parents said that there are rules, and if their kids do not oblige to their rules, then they will invade their privacy. The other six (20%) says yes because children’s privacy is their privacy. This one lady said to me that being a parent comes with a lot of fear. Especially in today’s world because anything can happen within a blink of an eye. So being protective and showing concern might be annoying and piss off your child, but it is worth the attitude knowing your child is in bed safe every
day. As you can see, parents care a lot about their kid’s safety; not just their safety of their teens in the environment but more so social media also. In Amanda Lenhart’s article, she states “92% of teens report going online daily.” Social media is one of the most used types of websites by teenagers. Connecting with other people can be a great thing, but it also brings many issues. Bullying through social media include: Posting negative comments on pictures, posting abusive posts on a user’s wall, using pictures or videos to make fun of another user, using social media to stalk, and hacking an account or fraudulently making posts as though another wrote them. Many of the acts of bullying on social media are like what they would be in a real-life situation, only in digital form. The impact of the problem is also similar. The fact that teens have a difficult time getting away from it can lead to awful consequences that can have lasting effects. Care of ethics comes in when there are problems going on in the teen’s life, parents want to make sure their child not in harms way or is harming themselves.
Conclusion: Even though teens complain about their parents being in their business, parents are not used to seeing their child needing privacy. Parent need to have a feeling of comfort when it come to their child, especially an over protective parent. They shouldn’t have to feel like they must worry about their child because of them wanting privacy. Parents caring about their child’s safety, although invading privacy shows from the care of ethics perspective that it is okay to invade privacy because of the concerns of a parent. The obligation to protect trump's the right of privacy for kids. Which is why I do believe that parents have the right to invade their teens privacy.