We’ve had fairly adequate coverage of the recent Paris Hilton goes to jail saga. The skinny: Paris Hilton violates probation, is sent to jail, is let out under house arrest instead, and is ordered back to jail. I know it’s only a 45-day sentence (commutable to 23, with good behavior), but prison/jail changes a man, they say. Or in this case, perhaps, a woman.

Frankly, jail is one place I wouldn’t want my children to get into, ever. When Paris Hilton was ordered back into jail, though, she pleaded with her mother to help her. And surely, her mum and dad felt bad about her having to endure this. But come to think of it, Ms. Hilton is being jailed so she can face the consequences of her actions. In short, she is responsible for her current predicament. And guess what, her parents are–to some extent–also responsible.

This is what Jamie Lee Curtis says, in a recent commentary on the Huffington Post.

What we need to do is look long and hard at our part in all this. Where did our children get the message that the rules don’t apply to them? And where did we, the Mothers, get the message that if we abdicate our responsibilities as Mothers, the Universe will do our job for us? And it does, but without any of the love and tenderness and compassion that we could have given, along with the lessons.

Ms. Curtis says our children have turned omnipotent, “running amok or sitting amok as they watch TV and play electronic games and shop on eBay.” It’s an epidemic, she says. The basic message: parents may not be doing enough to educate children and teach them right from wrong.

This is especially worse, when three of the more popular young celebrities today–Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears, and Paris Hilton–whom the youth might tend to idolize, are turning into miscreants.

Now it’s just the cold hard facts of a jail cell or the emptiness of a rehab room.

Being a parent myself–to significantly younger kids–I’m hoping that through the years I do a good job at building up their character to be mature, responsible individuals who do know right from wrong. It’s a changing world we’re living in, and unfortunately, our kids are increasingly being exposed to media–including celebrities and known personalities–in a moral decline.

Maybe we can change this by focusing on how to make new media more morals-friendly.

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