What's Left?

Just heard a couple of saddening reports. Children below the age of puberty engaging in sex and that a number of first year women students at university are drugged and raped. Realizing that you oughtn't to believe everything you read and hear via the media, one knows that there must be a fraction of truth and vital questions should be asked. Media, especially broad social media and the entertainment world, is partly to blame. It's not unusual to hear smart-mouthed cartoons and films made for kids whose roles show children swearing, experiencing adult events and even being part of them. I don't see the humour in that.  Some parents would argue that they are merely preparing children for a world that is far different than my "old fashioned" one where there were virgins and politeness and modesty and decorum and good manners all 'round. Of course, in my day, there were the opposites, but rather rarely, and to find children being just children is becoming an experience you find only at younger and younger ages. So what is going on? Are we preparing children for a world that is increasingly dangerous with the advent of social media and its horrendous negative possibilities along with the benefits? Are we not preparing young women who think that random sex and a lot of it, isn't normal? What it is that we are not doing as opposed to what we should be doing? Or both? First of all, putting a cell phone with anything in the world possible into a child's hands is taking a chance. Sure you can block out certain aspects, but other kids find ways to pass that by. When children younger and older, enter the outside world at school and college, they are in the real world with both feet on the ground. And no matter what you did or do at home or say or think, might not be what is really happening for them, and, furthermore,  you cannot follow your kids around all day long. I know that many parents don't let their little ones out of their sights, but that is just not possible wholly. As to women entering university, they are in a place where anything goes. It is loosely called "freedom" and parents haven't much influence when their adult offspring go out that door. Peers are the rulers  after puberty and we all know it even though we may have forgotten. But in these times,  it seems that youngsters below puberty are now targeted and not by outsiders, but by their peers. Virginity, for example, is a one-time thing and its value is not antiquated. Like any other "rite of passage" in one's life, it calls for some consideration, not just a passing blink. It's a part of life that is the end of something as is giving up toy dolls and toy trucks. It has significance. It is a personal time and a personal choice. Reports of campus rapes as a result of partying ( these are not parties but one of the ways  to find oneself socially) make me wonder about the value of parent child communication. Communication is often blocked between parent and child for some reason and both suffer. They say not, but that's not true. I don't know the answer to solving these ugly problems that can destroy a young person's identity for life. The old love and communication, just-being-there-no-matter-what for our kids, goes a long way.