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Abstract

With the development of environmental psychology, psychologists have paid increasing attention to the importance of privacy and the means of attaining it. At the same time, however, there has been minimal consideration given to the potential integration of new literature on the topic with legal doctrines related to privacy rights. This article is intended to facilitate such an integration with respect to the privacy interests of minors. Such an emphasis is particularly timely in view of contemporary efforts to explore the psychological assumptions underlying legal and philosophical analyses of the nature of children's rights. The cases reviewed in this article suggest that the jurisprudence of privacy in childhood and adolescence has also relied on psychological assumptions, although generally not assumptions concerning the psychology of privacy. The thesis of this article is that a more systematic examination of the significance of privacy for minors, both psychologically and ethically, would result in a more coherent and more humane policy of respect for children's personhood.

I. The Nature of Privacy ... A. Privacy as a Psychological Concept ... B. Privacy as a Legal Concept

II. Judicial Consideration of Privacy in Childhood ... A. Bodily Privacy ... 1. Psychological Questions ... 2. Conclusions ... B. Informational Privacy ... C. Territorial Privacy ... 1. Cases Involving Minors ... 2. Psychological Issues

III. The Psychology of Privacy in Childhood

IV. Conclusion

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