Kids say the darndest things...

Kids are strange and fascinating creatures. Has society, namely the internet, corrupted them already? In fact, has it pushed them to the point that they believe everything that's told to them by their friends, stuff they read in magazines, things they watch on television and all that dreaded junk that urban legends are made of? Example in point:  Little Neighbor Girl came over to play with Youngest Son. I informed her that Youngest Girl and Youngest Son had gone to see the Justin Beiber movie. Little Neighbor Girl had a look of utter disgust on her face and then proceeded to tell me that the Beib doesn't really sing and she knows this to be a fact. She watched a documentary (you might ask yourself, at this point, how many 8 yr. olds watch documentaries?) that showed someone sneaking backstage during a concert. They snapped a picture of a person standing directly behind Justin B.,with only a curtain separating them, singing into a microphone! Can you believe it? The Beib is a "lip singer" - her words, not mine. I kindly explained to her that the "documentary" she watched was probably not accurate and that if Justin Beiber had been caught on tape/film "lip singing" - remember, her words, not mine - there would be a great amount of hoopla surrounding it. She just shook her head and said it was true, turned around and walked off.
You know, I could care less if Justin Beiber "lip sings" or not. I could care less if he lip syncs too. My point is we have so much garbage floating around that our kids are bombarded with lies, falsehoods, and just too much information on all fronts. There is coming a generation that will believe in nothing because they just don't know what's true and what's not. In fact, that generation is probably already here.
Another case in point: Youngest Daughter has been checking out a popular magazine for seventeen yr. olds from our public library. Obviously, the young adult librarian has been previewing the magaznines before they hit the shelves and removes any "objectionable" material. Some folks would call this a form of censorship. I call it protection. And, I appreciate it.
Anyway....Youngest Daughter has been given a free subscription to said magazine. The first copy arrived in the mail last week. Youngest Daughter was not home when the mail arrived, so I decided to look through the rag a bit to catch up on the latest fashion and makeup trends. I was appalled, to say the least, at what I saw. Sandwiched between cheesy perfume ads (Mariah Carey's Bling Candy) and the article telling one how to acheive super voluminous hair, was an entire section on how to "hook-up" the right way and how to tell if a guy is really "into you" - and the  words "into you" were meant quite literally. Oh, lest I forget to mention the three or four pages dedicated to "sex secrets no one tells you".
I became Miss Censorship and started pulling out pages one by one. Was Youngest Daughter angered by my mutilation of her brand new magazine? No, not in the least (whew!). She was actually grateful and said so. Had she not had my super-dooper censorship abilities working for her, she would have read those articles and probably been influenced in an extremely negative way.
I am sitting her shaking my head wearily as I type these words. It concerns me for my own children most of all, but what about those kids whose parents don't censor (protect)? What are they, namely our young girls, going to believe about themselves and life in general? I think I'll come back to this topic again really soon, but for now  I must go check the mail. Who knows what's waiting in the box this time.