As far as the phone, I guess houses with one central telephone aren't really what I'm talking about, so much as Bye Bye Birdie "The Telephone Hour"-type situations. Teenage girls in the 50s and 60s were able to talk about boys, criticize authority figures, and generally be themselves and develop as their own people using technology without supervision or censorship. You probably didn't have that experience, but my parents did, and it would have been creepy and invasive then for their parents to demand to be part of those conversations, just like it's creepy and invasive now.

The NSA is (ostensibly) only looking for terrorist plots. Your parents are looking for criticism, attitude, impure thoughts, differing political beliefs, ingratitude, and a whole bunch of other things that are part of being a young human being. There is no question in my mind that given the choice, I'd take the NSA.

You know what else is a dangerous place filled with strangers? School. Sidewalks. Libraries. Not just strangers, but dangerous ideas. College. Especially college. At some point kids have to learn to navigate those things independently, lest they self-destruct the moment the leash is removed. Not as 5-year-olds, sure, but definitely by 16/17 (depending on maturity, of course).