Listening to an ad on Christian radio the other day, I heard a woman appeal to parents’ desire to protect their children from the media – Internet, music, television, and more. For some reason it occurred to me: how can we prevent our kids from being exposed to something if we continually subject ourselves to it?

Then with some thinking, I could not recall reading a single moral imperative in scripture that expires with age – God commands children and adults alike to be pure, holy, and righteous.

Men are the heads of their families whether they want the job or not. How we act will bear fruit – most obviously in the lives of our children. For proof, I turn to this month’s excerpt, which comes from a thorough and frightening study of the religious lives of American youth. As we consider these words carefully, we should ask ourselves this question: are our standards for ourselves the ones we would like for our children?

Few teen problems in fact are invented or promoted by teenagers. Most are prevalent in and developed, modeled, and handed down to teens by the adult world . . . In the end, teens are simply learning through socialization how to live in the problematic world they are inheriting from adults. . . .

Adults often complain about how stupid television is and how much of it teenagers watch, but American adults actually watch just as much (stupid) television as teenagers do. Adults constantly preach to adolescents about sexual responsibility, yet . . . the world portrayed by adult-produced media is one of relatively free sex without negative consequences; and all manner of pornographic sex (much of which can hardly be called “responsible”) our society labels “adult,” implying that, though kids should not view pornography, it is a perfectly appropriate pastime for grown-ups to enjoy. Should we be surprised that teens, who are itching to enjoy the freedoms of grown-up life, act out their sexuality in ways not always responsible?

from Christian Smith’s Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers