There is a wide gap between sexualizing infants and teens exploring their natural tendencies and these stories often try to wash over the differences and combine the two as if one and the same. No infant or child has a natural tendency to explore sexual things unless it is introduced by adults in various forms. Parents make excuses for their poor education because they don't want to edit what they watch and do. However parents who do raise much more well adjusted children who do at the right age and maturity find sexual things on their own.

We do have a moral responsibility to raise well adjusted children. part of that is protecting them from knowledge that robs them of childhood until they are mature enough to manage the information. Sex is no different. What we choose to expose our kids to completely effects the age at which they will become active and interested in sexual things.

Everyone dose not allow or expose their children to sexualized material despite what our liberalized media would have us believe. Using the Britteny or Madonna example is a perfect one, it made news because it was so revolting to so many people. It had truly been the norm it would not have gotten any coverage and on one would have carried about it. I dont try to restrict the natural progression of my children, I do however restrict a forced progression or sexual indoctrination by managing age appropriate access and morally grounded choices.

The proof is in the results I let my kids make their own choices, they tend to be much more conservative in their moral views than me. By they time the were each 11 or 12 they were mostly free to decide for themselves, having been taught correct, ethical, and moral principles they could make more informed choices and decisions that they could comprehend. At this age and older they could weigh out the choices and repercussions of they way they behave and decide what is right for them.

But I think the real concern kicks in around 11-15 (still “kids”, in my view)…especially with young girls. I'm not particularly concerned with young girls enjoying showing off their developing bodies in the real world…that's been around forever. But I think most parents are almost completely unaware of the sea change introduced by webcams and broadband internet over the past decade. I'm not referring to pros who are over 18 who wear tiny dresses and pigtails and charge by the minute. I'm talking about honest-to-goodness young girls…especially in their early teens…who get drawn into online conversations with somewhat-older guys, and getting involved in stripping down (and often much more) on their webcams right under your own roof. At the risk of appearing too blunt, I think it should be required that all parents of preteens spend a bit of time viewing videos on sites like motherless-dot-com (ironic name, eh?) or msnchicks-dot-com. These videos are recorded by the guys on the other end of the webcam connection (without the girl's knowledge) and distributed all over the internet (I'm not sure if there's a financial incentive to the guys who record, or if its just some sort of power trip for them). There's simply no way to make these videos go away from all the sites they end up on. This is the kind of thing that will be haunting the next generation well into their adult lives. This doesn't even begin to address issues of actual physical danger…where a young girl may not be willing to give out her name or city…but gets on the webcam wearing a t-shirt from her high school. Kids are dumb. Parents need to be aware in order to protect them from themselves. Webcams, where they may be appropriate, should be kept in public areas of the house, not in the kids' bedrooms.