# Teen privacy and confidential care

**How much privacy should our teen have, including with their doctor?**

How much privacy your teen has in their room, phone and health care, including time alone with a doctor.

In short: Parents choose between 3 main approaches: Parents may enter and read at will; Knock first, privacy unless safety is at stake; Privacy as a right, confidential therapy. Evidence: your call. No outcome evidence picks a winner. Preference, culture, money and logistics decide. Best settled: tween.

- Area: The teen years
- Evidence: Your call
- Best settled: Tween
- First published: 2026-10-03
- Last updated: 2026-10-05
- Page: https://www.raisingyourchild.com/topics/the-teen-years--teen-privacy-and-confidential-care

## Teen privacy and confidential care: what are the options?

1. **Parents may enter and read at will**: You may go into the teen's room and read their things whenever you choose.
2. **Knock first, privacy unless safety is at stake**: You knock, and respect privacy unless you fear for their safety.
3. **Privacy as a right, confidential therapy**: The teen has full privacy, including seeing a therapist without you being told what is said.

## Teen privacy and confidential care: what does the evidence say?

**Your call.** No outcome evidence picks a winner. Preference, culture, money and logistics decide.

The AAP's 2024 policy statement and technical report on confidentiality in adolescent care, and the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine's 2025 position paper, both hold that confidentiality is an essential part of good teen health care and that parents, clinicians and young people should work together; the AAP notes that limits on confidentiality and consent are associated with less access to sexual and reproductive health care, less contraceptive use and higher adolescent pregnancy rates (AAP policy statement; SAHM, 202500250-2/fulltext)). In the US, state law governs which services a minor can consent to and from what age, so check your state; neither source page could be opened in full here, so this rests on their published summaries

Sources:

- [AAP policy statement](https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article/153/5/e2024066326/197124/Confidentiality-in-the-Care-of-Adolescents-Policy)
- [SAHM, 2025](https://www.jahonline.org/article/S1054-139X(25)

## What else is worth knowing?

Teenagers need privacy to develop, and parents remain responsible for their safety. Doctors commonly see teens alone for part of a visit, and confidentiality rules vary by place. Decide what would justify overriding privacy.

## Questions to ask each other

- What privacy do we think a teen needs in their room and phone?
- How do we feel about our teen seeing a doctor or therapist alone?
- When would we break confidence for safety?

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General information, not medical advice. Two parents can each answer this and compare: https://www.raisingyourchild.com/explore?cat=the-teen-years&topic=the-teen-years--teen-privacy-and-confidential-care