Vanity Fair Heralds Kids' DownfallDear Readers: I wrote this today in reponse to Ben Shapiro's column on "townhall.com" entitled "Hannah Montana Does Playboy?" Dear Mr. Shapiro: I see that a number of the usual pedophilia apologists have come online with their usual talking points. "She's a big girl now", "it's ART", "she's mature for her age", "her parents were okay with it", "it'll raise awareness"... and others with variations thereof. All the usual excuses for leading children into perversity for perversity's sake. The Hollywood trend of corrupting, sexualizing, traumatizing and adultizing children at ever younger ages has grown steadily since Jack Valenti's heyday. Recently, it even passed the threshold of actual child porn on at least one occasion. Disney probably remains the most child-friendly environment for children and child actors in Hollywood. But it is still IN Hollywood. The depraved climate and business practices of the entertainment industry as a whole are pervasive. Even where normally loving parents are concerned, money and fame can all too often lead them into making compromises (and then greater compromises) with their children's good names and, thus, their futures as decent adults. It's not a new story in itself. What IS new is the potential extent of those abuses. Children's acting careers should be secondary to their upbringing. Also; what their parents need to keep in mind is that, when their performing children attract a peer-aged following, they, as parents, essentially become secondary parents to those other children, as well. Thus, both child actors and their parents incur a vast responsibility. Of course, beyond the gates of the Disney Compound, the situation worsens. 14 year old star AnnaSophia Robb is just coming off two disasterous R-rated films in which sexuality, morbidity, gross violence and her own sexualization were in evidence. Little Irish actress Saiorse Ronan (14); much the same. Dakota Fanning (now 14 as well) helped to bring child porn into the "mainstream" with her infamous "Hounddog" role when she was only 12. What happened to her afterward, both personally and professionally, is a sorrowful (and largely untold) story for a kid who was once phenominally popular herself. Child actors are children, too... and FIRST. This is what so many of us tend to forget. When we allow them to be degraded in the duplicitous name of "art", we likewise forward the degradation of all children (our own included!) through them. The Cyrus incident is only the latest. Vanity Fair similarly heralded Dakota's moral downfall in 2006... just three months before the filming of "Hounddog". Is history about to tragically repeat itself? Miley Cyrus is likely at a crossroads, here. It's now for her and her parents to decide which comes first; the "show" or the young soul. If, God willing, the latter prevails, then her duty is clear. It's not enough to merely apologize to her heartbroken young fans and their angry parents. An act of restitution is in order. She needs to come forward (with her parents), explain how it happened, take full responsibility and point out to us all how easy it is to be compromised by Hollywood's culture czars when you're unwary and influenced (as kids so easily are) by honeyed words of deceit. Dakota Fanning never did this. Thus, she threw away the incredible, God-given opportunity to put her name and face on an entire generation of kids growing up with her. Miley Cyrus has that same opportunity, now. She can still be that shining face of her young peers; both on screen and in numerous other and better ways that extend beyond the entertainment field. Her previous good example is what modern kids so desperately need. But that opportunity is fast slipping away. If she truely holds to any sense of worth beyond herself and has any care for the millions of kids who love her, then she needs to take quick, remedial action. In the final analysis, those children owe her nothing. She, however, owes them EVERYTHING. Now's the time for her to come through for them. | 
