Last year, there was the tragic story of an 18 year old in the Cincinnati area who committed suicide after being taunted about a nude photo she sent to her boyfriend got, as would be expected, disseminated to the general populace.

The suicide is tragic, there's no doubt about that. But what's particularly irritating me about this story is that now this girl's mother is making the talking head circuit calling for laws to protect children from, well, each other and their hormones.

Ok...there's several things bugging me about this...

What really stuck in my craw this morning was this quote from the article linked above:

"I'm just devastated by these parents that allow their children to do and say anything they want."

Wait. What?!?!?!

Where were you when your little darling was taking nude photos of herself and sending them to her boyfriend??? So now because of this woman's crappy parenting, this girl is dead and she thinks she should be telling everyone else how to raise their kids?? Someone needs to send this lady the definition of the word hypocrite.

Besides, this girl was eighteen years old. Was she so sheltered and delicate that she could not take the jabs of "whore" and "slut" in stride? This is what's happening because of the nanny laws that are already in place because of the "Think of the children" shriekers.

And this lady thinks we need more of these laws put into place. What we need is to let kids be kids and learn from their mistakes. The way kids are sheltered by their parents these days is causing them to grow up as thin-skinned whiners who can't think for or defend themselves. I could see if this girl was 14 or 15, but she was eighteen for crying out loud. Grow the hell up and take responsibility for your actions.

Even if this had been a younger child, there is nothing about this story that needs laws. What this story needs are parents who take an active interest in their childrens' lives and not count on the TV to raise them or the government to save them.

Your kid doesn't need a phone. It's nice to have, but there's ways to put restrictions on those phones so stuff like this doesn't happen. Kid's text logs show their texting while in school? Phone goes in the drawer for a month. Kid sends naked pictures of themselves to boy/girlfriend? Phone gets smashed with a hammer and doesn't get replaced. That's it. No ifs, ands or buts.

Parents, take responsibility for your decision to have children and BE PARENTS!