but I will say that Dakota Fanning was, what, 14, when that movie was made? But I think the guy from Drake and Josh is 21 or 22. That makes a difference to a lot of people. I haven't seen either movie so I have no idea what the content actually is, but the ages of the kids is really different. Those two are really not a fair comparison, to me.

Not sure of the ages of the other gals/guys. I'm sure if you work for Disney and you are underage, you are under more pressure to "apologize" than you would be in other circumstances.

I think that article also mentioned the "scandals" of Jodie Foster in Taxi Driver, Brooke Shields famous Calvin Klein ad....It does seem that girls doing provacative things draws a lot more attention.

in this case, I think.  To me, the Miley shot was bad because she was holding bedsheets.  It's just too suggestive for 15 year olds.  Are these other pictures of naked male teens suggestive in the bedroom sense or were they just naked shots?  

I think that in the media general, younger women are sexualized (older men wanting to have sex w/ young girls) more than the other way around.  so we should be more scandalized when things like the miley shots happen.

picture was the fact her dad was in it. Yech!!

We should not allow young teen girls to be sexualized because they are often the victims of sexual abuse by older men.  Alllowing the mainstreaming of such ideas does nothing but harm.  Vanessa Hudgins and Miley star in shows promoted by Disney which is mainly aimed at kids and young teens.  Promoting underage sex to this same audience should raise an outcry. As for Lindsay Lohan there was no public outcry, just pity that once again a Hollywood female must undress to be taken seriously.  It seems every female who has won an oscar in the last 30 years had to show their boobs on film before they could.  Men are not urged to bare their penis on camera though.  Women are also too often cast as gorgeous rape victims, prostitutes, battered wives, sex slaves, etc..  While men are hardly ever placed in such roles but rather in the roles of batterers, abusers and saviours.  The Dakota Fanning incident was disgusting.  The scene could have been inferred but was filmed for shock effect to boost the notariety of the film and the star.  Happily, it backfired.  The rape of a child, fictional or real, is not entertainment. Sorry, but there is no comparison here.  

That was the one that I really thought was ridiculously overblown, since I believe she was 18 and took them herself for her boyfriend?  I thought it was ridiculous that she should have to apologize, since she is possibly the cutest girl who's ever lived.  If I looked like her , I'd want some documentation, too.

Our culture is positively saturated with sex. What used to be called pornography is now simply advertising, and it's standard operating procedure for child stars to toy with their images in this way to gauge how they'll make the transition to "grown up" careers.

Absolutely fantastic post about this at the blog I edit, and I'm ashamed to shill for my job in the comments, but here I go anyway (I usually just lurk here, but I just had to add to this discussion). "The Porning of Miley Cyrus" is by Kevin Scott, who has a new book coming out on the culture of porn and how it has seeped into everything.

Specifically, it seems as if our daughters are being targeted by waves of media—both in popular culture and in the "serious" media that covers the escapades of young female stars—that first encourage conformity to a new and virtual brand of highly sexualized identity and then thrills to their destruction. And so we encourage our daughters to adopt sexual identities that will eventually destroy them. Well done, us.

This is why many parents sigh with relief when the occasional Miley Cyrus comes along. And she isn't without precedence. Hilary Duff transitioned, within the current cultural regime, from child star to recording artist and actor. Even now, at 21, she doles out the sexy images of herself in small and comparatively mild doses. Soon she'll be appearing in a couple of respectable independent films and an artsy comedy with John Cusack called War, Inc. Nice work, if you can get it. And Miley very clearly wants it.

Also, for a look at how boys encounter inappropriately sexual content in kid's media as well, you must listen to Dan Savage on this episode of "This American Life." (It's free to download right now, but they usually start charging for download a week or two after the air date). He talks about his son's love of "The Suite Life of Zach and Cody," and the disturbingly adult sex drive of one of the main characters, a ten-year-old boy.