I recently drove my eight-year-old sister to Daycare, and on the way played some music from my CD. I listen to a lot of foreign music, so I wasn't very worried about the content. Then the song "Chandelier" by Sia came on, and my sister started singing the lyrics. I didn't think much of it, since I'd heard the song thousands of times and I knew there were no curse words. She'd heard it from somewhere, meaning it wasn't something that wouldn't be played on the radio. Then the song "Good For You" by Selena Gomez came on. This one I was a little worried about, but my sister kept on singing word for word. I assumed that if my mom was okay with her listening to it, and these songs were on Kids' Music Choice (a feature on Xfinity that has a bunch of "child appropriate songs available to play"), that they were fine for me to play in the car.

Here are a few lyrics from "Chandelier:"

I'm the one "for a good time call"
Phone's blowin' up, ringin' my doorbell
I feel the love, feel the love

1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3 drink
1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3 drink
1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3 drink

Throw 'em back, till I lose count

That song is definitely about drinking and partying, something my eight-year-old sister knows nothing about.

And here's some lyrics from "Good For You:"

Gonna wear that dress you like, skin-tight
Do my hair up real, real nice
And syncopate my skin to your heart beating

'Cause I just wanna look good for you, good for you, uh-huh
I just wanna look good for you, good for you, uh-huh
Let me show you how proud I am to be yours
Leave this dress a mess on the floor
And still look good for you, good for you, uh-huh

Why yes, she does look good, with or without clothes apparently.

My eight-year-old sister, who just started third grade, knew all the lyrics to these songs. This isn't just her, either. Lots of children who I worked with this summer at a summer camp knew the lyrics to songs like "My Way" by Fetty Wap and "Earned It" by The Weeknd. While I love these songs and listen to them often, something doesn't sit right with me knowing that kids as young as six are constantly having these lyrics shoved into their brain.

The big question is, why is this stuff on the radio?

Something is happening in American culture that is hard to stop. Sex is everywhere, and it's pumped into kids at a young age. There's no wonder that teenagers are having sex at as young as 14 now. It's being pumped in their heads since they came out of the womb! Television, music, advertisements, adult topics like drugs and sex are subliminally (and sometimes explicitly) found everywhere. Americans have become desensitized to it, and it has fallen into a moral grey area for some. Even I as a kid did not notice something overtly sexual in the song "Buttons" by The Pussycat Dolls (my favorite song at my sister's age).

Some lyrics from the song:

I'm telling you loosen up my buttons baby (Uh huh)
But you keep fronting (Uh)
Saying what you going do to me (Uh huh)
But I ain't seen nothing (Uh)

Typical
Hardly the type I fall for
I like when the physical
Don't leave me asking for more
I'm a sexy mama (mama)
Who knows just how to get what I wanna (wanna)
What I want to do is spring this on you (on you)
Back up all of the things that I told you (told you)

I did call myself a sexy mama at age eight, and that was probably not a good thing.

Parents are starting to notice this change in our culture, and have decided the only way to keep children from being absorbed into sex culture is to hide it from them. However, this has proven to be a faulty plan, as you cannot keep a child from an entire society (at least not ethically). So what do we do? We can't hide sex culture; it's too powerful to be hidden. We don't want to let kids be brainwashed into being sex objects for the rest of their lives. How do we live, and teach children good morals and ethics, in a society that doesn't even know what "family friendly" means anymore?

There's no easy answer to this, but a good answer is to be honest. Talk to your kids about these adult themes when they start to find out about them. Don't tell them to ignore it, or tell them they're too young to understand. If you don't answer their question, a really ignorant friend of theirs will, or the internet. Honesty is the best policy, and if that's the kind of relationship you want with your child, you're going to have to take the first step and be honest with them. It's unfortunate that kids are having to grow up so much sooner. My sister talks, acts, and has problems like me, and I'm ten years older than her! I wish she could've had more time to play pretend, think cooties were a thing, and not care about the clothes she wears. Now, I do what I can for her by being an example to her and being honest when she asks me those tough questions. The radio, I've learned, is no longer kid-friendly, and that's something we're all going to have to acknowledge and deal with.