You can't stop your kids from going to public school and being introduced to this trend. Well you can if you're rich. It doesn't matter how good of a parent you are, when you send the kids to school they are on an even playing field with everyone else. Peer pressure sucks, I remember it. In my day it was smoking, now its drugs and getting pregnant. Our future is bleak. Its a mistake to think generational differences are completely meaningless. The generations that built Rome in the years of its upswing were different from the last generations of the Roman empire in the phase of its decadence, for example. The complacent, opium-addled late-Qing-dynasty Chinese culture was different than that of those who built the Great Wall...as well as those who followed them. Since I'm reaching the fringes of old fart-itude, I'll go ahead and say what all the folks my age are thinking. I blame the MTV . I tried to find it via Google a few minutes ago, but I can't recall which ancient philosopher said it.. .but there is a diatribe from one of them about how society was crumbling, and how kids had lost touch. And this was from someone living in either ancient Athens or Rome. My personal view is that, as we age, our world view becomes very egocentric and we simply can no longer connect emotionally with the POV of following generations. Kids today, in all honesty, are probably a bit smarter than