Is it legal for parents to force an adult child to give them their passwords to their email?
by 
magicgal86
ANSWERS: 5
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No, it's not legal, if the child is an adult. But 1) How would they do this, anyway? How would you literally force another person to do this? If you mean they'll withhold resources from you (e.g., letting you live at home as an adult) if you don't give the passwords, then this isn't force. You can always elect not to have the thing they're refusing to give you. 2) Even if it's illegal, your recourse would be a lawsuit, and I don't really see a judge taking this very seriously unless the nature of the coercion was some really harmful behavior.
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I don't feel this would be a legal issue. Just as a company has access to read your emails on a work account, parents have the right to read their children's email. Email is not protected in the same way that the US postal mail is. Also, this would be very hard to enforce, since the child could just change the password right after they give it to thier parents.
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It all depends what you mean by "force". If they make this a condition of your using a computer/connection owned/paidfor by them, then that is their privilege. If you cannot accept this condition, then your recourse is to opt out of this "verbal contract" by ceasing to use what belongs to them. Making the use of their private belongings subject to a condition is not "using force", however unreasonable that condition may or not be.
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If you access your e-mail through their PC then yes. If you signed a lease with them and they snuck some anti-privacy clauses into the fine print of the lease, then maybe. Otherwise, no. Now, if they insist then you must re-evaluate which is more important to you; your parent's approval or their mental health. I've had to deal with a mother-in-law with similar control issues. I won't bore you with the details, but suffice it to say that if your situation is anything close to what mine was then you'll either hurt them or hurt yourself.
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A parent has the legal right to know what a minor child is doing, writing, reading, and watching. Not only that, the parent has the responsibility to guide and oversee these activities. Ultimately, that parent can be held legally (both in civil and criminal courts) for not overseeing what a child is doing.
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