Jia Meng used to keep a diary in Chinese. But one year ago, the 14-year-old girl from Heilongjiang Province began to write her diary in English, because Jia found her mother was reading her diary secretly. She changed the language because her mother can't read English. “It's like killing two birds with one stone.” said Jia, “My private things become safe and my English improves a lot.”

    Jia's mother is not the only mom who reads her child's diary. Recently, Renmin University of China had a survey among over 23,000 parents. The results show that 40% of parents read their children's sectects. That's why many teenagers try to find ways to protect their privacy(隐私).

    Wu Lei, 15, of Shanxi, keeps a diary, too. But he doesn't write it on paper. He writes online which he thinks is perfectly safe because his parents know nothing about the Internet.

    Lu Huan, 13, of Guangdong, said her parents always secretly listened to the talk between her friends and her on the telephone in their room. To solve this problem, Lu asked her parents to buy her a mobile phone.

    “Parents want to know what is going on in their children's lives,” said Shao Xiazhen, a teenage expert in Beijing. “But sometimes they go about it the wrong way.” Shao suggested to teenagers that instead of hiding their secrets, talking to parents should be a better solution. “If your parents know that you are safe, they'll let you keep your secrets.”

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