Another reason to monitor your child's cell phones

This morning, I stood in my kitchen, mindlessly eating my yogurt and drinking coffee, when this headline caught my eye:

Teens sending nude photos via cellphones

The subhead describes the problem further: "Pictures meant for boyfriend or girlfriend are ending up on the internet."

Here are a couple of key items in the story:

"School administrators in Santa Fe, Texas, confiscated dozens of cell phones from students in May after nude photos of two junior high girls began circulating. The girls had sent the photos to their boyfriends, who forwarded them to others, officials said."

"Psychologists said the phenomenon reflects typical teenage hormones and lack of judgment, with technology multiplying the potential for mischief. It also may reflect a teenage penchant for exhibitionism, as demonstrated on MySpace and countless other Web sites and blogs."

"Some parents are aghast."

Only some parents?

And you wonder why our culture corrupts childhood innocence.

The "teens" highlighted in the article are mostly middle schoolers. This would make them between the ages of 11 and 14, roughly.

This means children between the ages of 11 and 14 are now creating pornographic photographs of THEMSELVES and transmitting these photos to other children ages 11 to 14, who then are distributing said photos to the public.

Perhaps the parents who are not aghast wonder why these kids would do such a thing for nothing, since we all know child porn is big business. ("You sent your nudie picture out for free?! We could have added to your college fund!").

This is the result of our "grow-up-too-fast" world. Kids are engaged in the culture, where morality is relative and Disney stars can enjoy role model status even after their nude photos are circulated world wide.

Worse, the issue in the article isn't the fundamental question of why a young girl would think it is OK to take a nude picture of herself for her teenage boyfriend, but rather, do these kids today realize that those internet photos will follow them to a job interview?

That psychologists could in any way attribute such behavior to normal hormone changes and poor judgment reflects the sorry state of our cultural expectations regarding puberty.

Yet, the most distrubing part of this news story is "Some parents are aghast." Because the truth is, some are not aghast, or disturbed or even surprised. Which in itself makes me aghast.