In the digital era has become fashionable for young people to express their affection by sharing their passwords to e-mail, Facebook and other accounts. Boyfriends and girlfriends sometimes even create identical passwords, and let each other read their private e-mails and texts.
在此數位時代，年輕人以交換電郵、臉書和其他帳戶的密碼表達情愛正大行其道。情侶甚至會設定相同的密碼，讓對方瀏覽自己的私人電郵和簡訊。

They say they know such digital entanglements are risky, because a souring relationship can lead to people using online secrets against each other. But that, they say, is part of what makes the shared password so powerful.
他們自稱知道這種數位糾結很危險，因為一旦關係走味，兩人可能以線上祕密彼此攻詰。但他們說，這正是互通密碼如此夠力的原因之一。

“It’s a sign of trust,” Tiffany Carandang, a high school senior in San Francisco, said of the decision she and her boyfriend made to share passwords e-mail and Facebook. “I have nothing to hide from him.”
舊金山高三生蒂芙妮．卡瑞登談到與男友互通電郵及臉書密碼時說：「這代表信賴，我什麼都不瞞他。」

“That is so cute,” said Cherry Ng, 16, listening in to her friend. “They really trust each other.”
16歲的吳櫻聽完卡瑞登的話說：「好可愛，他們真的彼此信任。」

Ms. Carandang, 17, said, “I know he’d never do anything to hurt my reputation.”
17歲的卡瑞登說：「我知道他絕不會破壞我的名譽。」

Changing a password is simple, but students, counselors and parents say that damage is often done before a password is changed, or that the sharing can be the reason a relationship falters.
更改密碼輕而易舉，但許多學生、諮商專家和家長都說，傷害常在密碼變更前就已造成，這種線上開誠布公也可能正是情侶失和的原因。

The stories of fallout include a spurned boyfriend who tries to humiliate his ex-girlfriend by spreading her e-mail secrets; tensions between couples over scouring each other’s private messages for clues of disloyalty or infidelity; or grabbing a cellphone from a former best friend, unlocking it with a password and sending threatening texts to someone else.
負面事例包括，被甩的男孩散播前女友的電郵祕密以羞辱她；情侶因彼此搜閱對方私人簡訊，企圖找到對方不忠的蛛絲馬跡而關係緊張；用密碼打開昔日至交的手機，發簡訊威脅他人。

Rosalind Wiseman, who studies how teenagers use technology, said the sharing of passwords, and the pressure to do so, was somewhat similar to sex.
研究青少年如何使用科技的蘿莎琳．魏斯曼說，互通密碼以及非這麼做不可的壓力，類似性行為。

Sharing passwords, she noted, feels forbidden because it is generally discouraged by adults and involves vulnerability. “The response is the same: if we’re in a relationship, you have to give me anything,” Ms. Wiseman said.
把密碼告訴情人感覺起來是禁忌，因為大人多半不贊成，自己也容易受傷。魏斯曼說：「這種反應是一樣的：既然我們要好，一切都得給我。」

In a 2011 telephone survey, the Pew Internet and American Life Project found that 30 percent of teenagers who were regularly online had shared a password. The survey, of 770 teenagers aged 12 to 17, found that girls were almost twice as likely as boys to share. And in more than two dozen interviews, parents, students and counselors said that the practice had become widespread.
丕優研究中心網路及美國生活計畫2011年電話調查發現，常上網青少年30%曾把密碼告訴他人。這項針對770名12到17歲青少年所做調查發現，女孩透露密碼的機率幾乎是男孩的兩倍。而在20多場訪談中，家長、學生及諮商專家說互通密碼已相當普遍。

In a recent column on the tech-news Web site Gizmodo, Sam Biddle offered advice to couples and friends on how to avoid missteps.
作家畢多最近在科技新聞網站Gizmodo發表專欄，針對情侶及好友間如何避免犯這樣錯提出建議。

“I’ve known plenty of couples who have shared passwords, and not a single one has not regretted it,” he said in an interview.
他受訪時說：「我認識不少互通密碼的情侶，沒有一對不後悔的。」

Students say there are reasons beyond a show of trust to swap online keys. For instance, several college students said they shared Facebook passwords to force themselves to study for finals. A student would give her password to a friend to change it – and not disclose the new one – thereby temporarily locking out the Facebook account holder and taking away a big distraction to studying.
許多學生說，這種交換線上鑰匙的作法除了展現信任，還有其他原因。例如，有些大學生說，他們把臉書密碼告訴別人，以逼自己用功準備期末考。有個女學生把密碼告訴朋友，請朋友更改密碼卻不告訴她，讓她暫時無法登入，除掉害她無法專心讀書的一大干擾。

Alexandra Radford, a junior at San Francisco State University, said one friend wanted to know the new password before exams ended, but Ms. Radford held firm.
舊金山加州州大大三學生亞歷珊卓拉．拉德福說，曾有朋友想在考試結束前知道新密碼，但她堅決不說。

But Ms. Radford, 20, is more sheepish about the passwords she shared in high school with her boyfriend. “We did it so I could check his messages because I didn’t trust him, which is not healthy,” she conceded.
不過，20歲的拉德福對高中時與男友互通密碼可就沒這麼理直氣壯了，她坦承：「我們交換密碼好讓我查他的簡訊，因為我不信任他，這很不健康。」

Counselors typically advise against the practice, and parents often preach the wisdom of password privacy. Winifred Lender, a child psychologist in California, had her three sons sign “digital contracts,” in which they promise not to share passwords.
專家普遍建議青少年別這麼做，家長也常明告子女保護密碼隱私乃明智之舉。加州兒童心理學家薇妮佛萊德．蘭德就讓三個兒子簽下「數位協議書」，保證不把密碼告訴別人。

Patti Cole, 48, a child psychologist, said she thinks young people are sometimes drawn to such behavior as they might be toward sex, in part because parents and others warn them not to do.
48歲的兒童精神科醫師派蒂．柯爾說，她認為年輕人有時著迷此道，就跟他們可能著迷於性一樣，部分原因是家長等人警告他們別這麼做。

“We haven’t done a very good job at stopping kids from having sex,” she said. “So I’m not real confident about how much we can change this behavior.”
柯爾說：「在阻止孩子從事性行為上我們一直表現不佳。因此，對於能讓年輕人改變多少互通密碼的行為，我沒啥信心。」

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/18/us/teenagers-sharing-passwords-as-show-of-affection.html

2012-02-14聯合報/G9版/UNITEDDAILYNEWS 馮克芸譯 原文參見紐時週報十一版下