It's been more than 15 years since I worried about what my children read, watched on television or saw at the local movie theater. When I was raising my teenagers in the early and mid-80s, most parents exercised reasonable control over the books their kids read, the television shows that they watched and the movie theaters they visited.

Many of us raising kids in pre-cable television days did not have to monitor too much television viewing. By the time our kids were teenagers, we assumed that during their formative years, we did an effective job policing the information that they had access to. I know many parents who periodically raided their kids' closets looking for objectionable reading matter or pulled the plug on cable television when the kids were caught watching adult movies. I don't think most parents thought of this as censorship. No one challenged First Amendment rights and freedom of speech. Parents had support from teachers, neighbors and church leaders when it came to screening the information that children had access to in the public arena.

No one was naïve enough to think that teenagers didn't seek out titillating material or sneak off to see "European art films" at the local cinema. Most kids are naturally inquisitive. Once they see or read something that their parents have forbidden them to have, they generally make sure that their closest friends got an opportunity to break the same rules. This was not considered aberrant behavior 15 to 20 years ago. Many child psychologists explained this behavior as simply teenagers experimenting with objectionable material or challenging their parents' authority.

Fast-forward to the 1990s, and we're faced with the explosive growth of the Internet, a general relaxing of restrictions on sexually explicit material and challenges to what constitutes freedom of speech. Parents today are fighting to protect their children from an endless avalanche of objectionable material. Kids are faced with an information overload from an array of media outlets that parents, teachers and church leaders are almost powerless to stop.

Local and state laws on censorship are being challenged by the ACLU and attorneys who defend the right of artists, actors, entertainers and the music industry to produce offensive material under the protection of the First Amendment. It took Congress several years to support the labeling of music that contained offensive lyrics. The movie industry argued for years on the rating system for movies so that parents could decide which ones contain objectionable material and adult themes. A movie rated PG-13 contains enough nudity and offensive language that parents would have boycotted the theaters 15 or 20 years ago. Today, we see more examples of sex, violence and anti-social behavior in four to five hours of daily television shows than we saw in a year less than a decade ago. Advertisers and entertainment executives publicly admit that pushing the envelope on censorship and distributing explicit movies helps generate greater profits.

Several years ago, even Walt Disney Productions entered the R-rated movie market under a different production company and studio name. They admitted that lagging profits in Disney's core family movie sector prompted them to compete in the adult theme market.

What can parents do to stem the tide of sexually explicit and offensive material that most kids have easy access to today? Honestly, not too much. The media prides itself on pushing the boundaries on freedom of speech and artistic expression. What may be considered objectionable by the parents of pre-teens or teenagers is considered cutting edge and artistic by many mainstream television networks, movie studios and print media. Who decides what is objectionable or pornographic is a question that no one in the media seems prepared to address. Their response to critics is that parents have to assume full responsibility for what their kids read, watch on television or see in movie theaters. They have conveniently passed the buck to parents, teachers and churches to set the standards for decency. Meanwhile the producers of music, videos, television shows and movies continue to rake in huge profits.

I don't think that parents can effectively censor their kids' ingestion of and access to offensive material. There's just too much of it available. My personal belief is that parents, in concert with educators and church leaders, need to educate kids at an early age about the negative affects of sexually explicit and violent material. We can't hide this from our kids and expect them to learn on their own what's acceptable and what's offensive.

Kids need to understand the negative implications of this material from the perspective of society, educators and especially the church. Kids that actively participate in church-sponsored programs and youth groups are better equipped to deal with this when their moral conscience is based on Christian principles. Some parents are not emotionally equipped to deal with issue of censorship and explicit material and defer this decision to teachers and church leaders. Someone has to fill this void and take responsibility for what our kids and grandchildren are exposed to in print, on the Internet, at the movie theater and in video games.

This problem is not going to disappear. Local churches and Sunday school teachers need to work with their regional or national offices to secure the proper educational materials so that they can teach kids how to effectively deal with this situation. There are parental support groups and youth programs available from most church synods and dioceses to help churches manage this problem. Waiting isn't going to solve the problem. Taking action now is what we need to do to protect our children.

This is one man's opinion.

As always, your comments and feedback are encouraged and appreciated.