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Generally speaking, I should think most parents are not by any means overprotecting their teens. Many could do to give them a lot more protection than they do. Times have changed dramatically since I was a teenager in the 70s and teenagers are exposed to far more hideous and complex dangers than we were.

Teenagers today may seem much more sophisticated and mature than we were, but essentially they really are still extremely vulnerable and dependent on their parents to protect them from the insidious evil traps that they can all too easily fall into. Without such protection they all too easily become the prey of very cunning and skilled predators who are prowling around looking for the young of their species to devour.

If teenagers are being overprotected, I would like to know why such an alarming percentage of them are having their lives destroyed by all kinds of evils? It seems more than obvious to me that our young people are sorely in need of greater protection from these evils that they are so susceptible to. Their parents, their leaders, their community and society as a whole have a solemn responsibility to consistently provide this critical protection throughout those vulnerable teen years.

It all begins at home though. Parents must be the ultimate protectors of their children - and childhood does not end at puberty. That is often the focal point of the greatest challenges that parents must monitor very closely. It is characterised by some of the most potentially destructive influences and often cunningly disguised threats to their well-being, safety and even their very lives.

Certainly they need to be allowed to exercise a certain amount of freedom and independence in their teens. It's neither fair nor healthy to tie them to your apron strings and deny them opportunities to spread their wings a little. In the long run they will flounder when they do get out into the real world if they have not had any experience of it. What's more, they are likely to break out and rebel in a big way if they feel too strictly confined.

But really I would doubt that such excessive confinement is at all common in western society at least. Even kids whose parents would possibly attempt to put the brakes on their independence a bit too hard would usually be quite expert at winning their own battles. Surely most parents would recognize that their teens need some degree of freedom to develop their own lives away from the nest. It's only the natural

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