Bodily privacy is recognized as an essential aspect of human dignity, and particularly essential to the dignity and well-being of children. The right to bodily privacy has been developed in American law and expressed in the contexts of a constitutional right, a right under common law, and a right specifically recognized for children.

Privacy violations are particularly hazardous for youth, as early violations profoundly affect a child’s future. Science confirms the brain does not fully mature until the mid-20s.

The young brain is shaped by the child’s experiences, which shape the individual’s long-term psychological and emotional development. Clinical findings provide solid scientific evidence that intrusive, anxiety-producing stimuli cause psychological, emotional, and physical harm to youth. The innate sense of bodily privacy placed in all of us by our Creator—our self-preservation instinct—has long been recognized as a precious, protected right. This white paper will address experimental violations of the right to privacy that have resulted in legal sanctions recognizing the profound and lasting damage that occurs to the victim—especially to young children whose brains and bodies are undeveloped.

Findings in the field of neuroscience provide extensive evidence of the relationship between the brain, mind, and body. Neuroscience “begins to unify data,”1 and these data can be used to describe how a child’s personal privacy and mental privacy is threatened by traumatic, intrusive stimuli—including images, events and intrusion of physical spaces such as restrooms, changing rooms, and locker rooms. Neuroscience confirms that it takes less than a second for an intrusive image to structurally change a child’s brain!