There is a lack of freedom given to teenagers today.
Do you agree?

The majority of teenagers today complain that they are not given sufficient freedom. Despite their complaints, I believe that teenagers are given more than adequate freedom. Since teenagers are still dependent on their parents, too much freedom can be bad for them.

There are many parents who are careerists nowadays. As they are too busy working, they can hardly stay home to monitor their children. Teenagers often take advantage of their parents’ absence to hang out with friends, watch television, play video games, et cetera. Rather than studying and doing their homework, they also spend too much time on social networking websites. Since they have a lot of freedom and barely anyone to supervise them, they tend to neglect their studies. Their negligence usually have an adverse effect on their academic performance.

A lot of parents have no idea who their children hang out with. There is a Chinese proverb which highlights the fact that spending time with decent friends influences us positively while mixing with bad friends influences us negatively. When teenagers socialise with true and sincere friends with positive character traits, their parents’ minds are put at ease. On the other hand, if they spend time with undesirable friends with ulterior motives, they can get into serious trouble. They can be cajoled into doing things that are harmful to their health such as smoking, drinking and doing drugs. They can also be pressurised into doing things that are morally unacceptable like gambling and committing crimes, among many other instances.

Teenagers today are also given a lot of freedom to work and earn their own money. While working at a young age is beneficial to them as they can learn about responsibility and the value of money, they may also spend their hard-earned money on inappropriate things like cigarettes and drugs. Whether or not teenagers can cultivate good spending habits actually depends on their upbringing. Thus, parents who teach their children well about good values normally do not have much apprehension about the way they spend. Unfortunately, many boys and girls in their teens are provided with too much freedom when it comes to spending. As a consequence, they spend their money however they want and often end up making bad choices.

Excessive freedom is also given to teenage children to surf the Internet. While it is true that they are able to learn about many beneficial things, the opposite is also true. They can, for example, encounter bad or unsavoury characters who are capable of swindling and even harming them. Due to the fact that teenagers are still young, immature and innocent, they are more vulnerable to tricks and scams.

In a nutshell, I disagree that there is a lack of freedom given to teenagers today. Although teenagers need a certain amount of freedom to grow and experience life appropriately, too much of it is definitely unfavourable to them. Since teenagers’ freedom is generally controlled by their parents, the latter should monitor and adjust the amount accordingly so as to maximise the benefits to the former.