So you’re tired too of dealing with your teenage son or daughter? You mean you’re walking on eggshells when he or she is home? Can’t get them out of bed in the morning? Having trouble getting them to follow any rules? Well, welcome to child rearing in the rip-roaring new millenium.

So what’s the real problem? One can propose several responses to this question, but the issue is far too complicated to be addressed by a knee-jerk answer. Could it be that the ever widening liberal spectrum of values has finally broken the camel’s back of mores, sending our youth into a spiraling plunge of moral decrepitude?

Let’s face it folks. Technology has been a two-edged sword insofar as both edification and moral corruption of our youth go. Although the omnipresence of the computer has yielded all kinds of tangible and intangible benefits, the internet has opened a Pandora’s box of evils unheard of only two decades ago. Additionally, the ubiquitous cell phone and other electronic gadgets like the iPod have spawned all kinds of tantalizing temptations for our kids, the likes of which we could not have imagined only a generation ago.

As far as the computer and internet, the easy availability of lewd sexual content has given kids access to images that only serve to pervert the natural and beautiful intentions of our Creator in bringing men and women together. The cell phone—while a blessing in that it gives parents the ability to keep track of where their children are—has also given these same children the ability to maintain a circle of friends and contacts, the likes of which might be trouble, without their parents’ being aware of such potential problems.

Moreover, the ever increasing popularity of certain morally depraved genres of music, such as gangsta rap and hardcore heavy metal, only further worsen the already pervasive negative influences on our children. Empirically at least, I strongly believe that respect issues among our youth is at an all time low. But then again this makes perfect sense.

After all, if a child hears four letter curses in such bizarre and frequent combinations, it will not take long before his ears are desensitized to such language. If you read the famous self-help book by Napolean Hill, Think and Grow Rich, you might remember a story the author tells about criminals. He mentions that when criminals were interviewed, they admitted that at first they were abhorrent toward crime. After being exposed to crime and criminal activity over a length of time, however, they quickly became acclimated to it and even desensitized to its effects. Before long they were hardened criminals. Do you not see the analogy between this example and our kids being exposed to all the negative images and sounds of today?

Change does take time and this problem will not correct itself immediately. However, if we stay complacent as parents, as educators, as human beings—if we remain the silent minority—then change will never take place and our youth will spiral into the ground, never rising up to become the leaders of tomorrow.

Rather I say, be the outspoken majority. Let’s take back our youth and start to speak out about the evils that are preying on our children. Don’t accept hardcore genres of music as just another art form and something that is noninjurious to your kids. Would you let your kids take poison? Surely not. The same is true if we keep letting our kids take poison in the form of such detrimental fodder. Of course, these actions are going to be much harder if your kids are past a certain age. Therefore, it is important that you parents of pre-adolescent children become super vigilant to these facts. Take a stand now and guard against these pervasive evils. Don’t let your kids be sucked into the fray. And for those of you who have kids that are already in the fray, pray hard and don’t give up. Your speaking out against these evils hopefully will eventually penetrate. At the very least, you won’t be giving in to a monster that is growing unchecked.

Joe Pagano