My daughter is only 5, but I am seriously considering keeping the kid inside the house and away from the television and internet until she is in college. There are just some things about being a teenager in today’s society that I cannot wrap my head around, no matter how hard I try.

When I was a teen and I had a crush on a boy, the standard way to let this be known was to either write an innocent, flirty note or to have one of my girlfriends drop a hint. We were always coy, never too direct, and moved slowly.

I have slowly become used to the fact that teens today are using Instant Messaging and cell phone texting to send flirty notes to their crushes. I see it as a lot more forward than I think it should be, but most kids will tell you that flirting over the net does not feel as real and they think they can be more forward without feeling embarrassed.

But, the ugly truth is surfacing and it turns out that many times these “flirty” messages are actually nude pictures and videos of themselves that teens are sending one another. Girls seem to the primary culprits here. Experts say there is a generalized perception that girls feel they need to be sexy and provocative to get a boy’s attention.

Yikes.

As we saw with Vanessa Hudgens, of High School Musical fame, once you send a picture of your self naked to someone in an electronic format, it has the potential to find its way to more public venues. One person sends it to two friends and so on, and so one – just like the Faberge shampoo commercial from the 70s.

Even more shocking is that multiple sources say that most teens today just flat do not see what is wrong about filming themselves in a sex act and either e-mailing it to someone or posting it on the internet.

“Adolescents are not known for thinking things through — that’s a generational constant,” says Jean Twenge, a psychology professor at San Diego State University. “Now, with the technology that is out there, instead of taking a picture and passing it around the classroom, it’s online, which is a whole different ball game. (Teens) don’t see it that way.”

I cannot, I will not, accept that my own daughter will grow into the type of teenager who thinks it is OK to send people nude photos of herself. I have worked hard to teach her about appropriate modesty and the respect of her own body. How did an entire generation miss this lesson?