Would you ever read your child's/teenager's diary or journal?

I agree with you both! Yes, teenagers absolutely have the right to privacy and should have the expectation of receiving it in their home environment, particularly their own room. I also think that it's important to consider, as you've said, that there "may" be situations or circumstances that are severe enough to warrant having to read their diary. Ignoti, can you suggest some circumstances that you believe would justify taking that kind of action?

The first idea that came to my mind was if my child were to go missing. I feel that if I were worried enough to call the police and it became a literal missing child case, then I'd also be worried enough to want to start looking for anything that might help me find my child. Though, I doubt that looking into a journal would be anywhere near the first considerations. Another may be my child is endangered or is going to endanger someone else's life -- this, however, would have to accompany a serious amount of evidence pointing in that direction before I'd take any action. There are many reasons I could imagine but they all seem to have this degree of importance to them. I'm not really sure though, it would all still amount to conscious conversations (or at the very least one-sided discussion) with my child about my behavior with respect to their sense of privacy. Though i do not have children (like I said) I am an activist among friends and family on this type of topic so I can imagine that I would be involved with my child to this degree.

Thanks ignoti... I'm really glad you were able to take the time to come back here and respond. I, too, am really interested in this issue as my work also involves child safety, specifically online. I totally agree that, in the case of a child/teen that goes missing, their personal items such as journals, diaries, scrapbooks, etc., might provide some indication of people they've met and who is in their social circle. I make it a point to chat with my kids often about who they hang out with at school, try to learn everyone's names, have an idea of where they live, etc. I am also pretty vigilant about their computer activities. In spite of working online myself, my kids have strict rules about where and when they can participate. However, back to the issue of privacy, let me ask you this... hypothetically, if you had a teen, and suspected that teen was being emotionally abused and controlled by a boyfriend, could that push you far enough to start reading the diary? I have another discussion under my username here on myLot that speaks about emotional abuse in teen relationships. I strongly suspect that this is happening to my daughter. I have been trying and trying to talk over the issues with her, over a period of many months now, and she refuses to discuss the situation. I ask her questions about him, trying to understand his mindset with her, and she just stares at me and says she has nothing to say. She assumes that my concerns have only surfaced because I "don't like him." I really WISH that was my only worry! Our discussions, more often than not, end in yelling, tears and fighting. It's not what I want, nor does she. I haven't read her diary and I do respect her privacy as an absolute right... but lately, I see her writing in there and can't help but wonder if anything she is writing would help to ease this awful situation. I wonder at what point I'd be "justified" in looking. The boy has now begun to backtalk my husband and has no respect for either of us as parents. I've spoken with his mother and she is at her wits' end with him... if he doesn't get his way, he cries and gets unbearably emotional. He also appears to believe that, at 16, he and my daughter are already adults who should be able to make their own rules and decisions. It's a frightening situation and I guess I'm reaching for anything I can that might help me to gain more insight and information.