Social commentator MAL FLETCHER critiques the excess of acts like Lady Gaga and Britney Spears

They're spread across around-the-clock music TV, easy-access web videos and internet games, all of which kids can easily access without their parents' involvement, even on their mobile phones.

The third big difference today is that the sexual references in music are often much more explicit and in some cases more aggressive.

That's partly because the music business is as it has always been, a business. It's not primarily about public enlightenment or teen education but the profit motive.

There's nothing essentially wrong with that - even Mozart and Beethoven had to make a buck. But in this age of what psychologists call constant partial attention, a lack of focus brought on by multi-tasking with media, young people are harder than ever to reach.

Where kids are concerned, companies know they won't make money dishing up the same-old, same-old every month of the year. So, artists and their record labels often turn to shock value, because in artistic terms it is the cheapest way to get attention.

The problem for parents is that over time these shocks become shocking - they have to. The lyrics and images that got the attention of young people a decade ago just won't cut it today. If shock value is the goal, something progressively stronger, more provocative is always called for.

The music world today, of course, is about more than selling music tracks. There's an entire multi-media industry devoted to music - and using teen music to sell products.

There's a tendency in some sections of the music media to say things like, 'We don't shape the culture, we just reflect what's already there.'

That's rubbish. If you reflect a thing often and graphically enough, you end up reinforcing it.

Besides, most of the sexualised imagery pumped out at young teens today is a long way from what they're seeing in the normal course of their daily lives.

Why should we as parents simply accept that nudity and overt suggestiveness are just part of life for children in the postmodern world? Graphic lyrics and images are put out there for one reason; it's not to educate our kids, it's to sell products.

We must decide if we want our kids to be used as marketing fodder in that way.

I'm not suggesting that we return to some repressive Victorian prudism. We don't want our kids to live in a bubble, hyper-protected from the real world. It's just that we don't want them losing too quickly what precious little innocence they still have.

I'm not suggesting that we return to some repressive Victorian prudism. We don't want our kids to live in a bubble, hyper-protected from the real world. It's just that we don't want them losing too quickly what precious little innocence they still have.