Miley Cyrus and Vanity Fair: Perspective of a Single Dad and Why My Daughter Will Continue to Watch Hanna Montana

It's everywhere. Miley Cyrus was pictured 'topless' in the magazine Vanity Fair recently, causing outrage from the mothers and fathers of tweens everywhere. The picture, which I viewed, show Miley with no top on, holding a satin-type sheet around herself, looking over her shoulder. It is quite a provocative pose, which Miley has responded to in an interview over at People.

Every time an issue comes up that centers on someone or something that may affect my daughter, I, as a single father rush to the web to do research. Am I rushing out to focus on the prospective impact of the images on my daughter? Well, yes in a way I am, but not to point the finger and decide on a absolutist course of action based on the materials.

Whether a pictorial came about showing someone of adult age in provocative poses or, in the case of Miley, a 15-year-old girl, I start looking at all the hangouts, fan sites and other resources that my daughter has access to, to make sure that she is not exposed to the offending material in the manner in which she goes about showing her loyalties daily.

Currently, I am relatively sure that my daughter will not encounter these images on Miley's show Hanna Montana, nor any of the merchandise which promotes her the show. Her official web page, mileyworld.com , features no pictures which depict Miley in situations that might cause questionable impact on my daughter. In fact, the impact of most of the material there is centered on showing young girls that they can dream to become anything, even a rock star. Miley's music also strives to portray young women as strong, able to dream, and I highly doubt there will be a push in her music to go see these pictures.

The things I wonder about when the public outrage is so great are things such as how, when the pictures are featured in a magazine which has seen many celebs in provocative poses, it should impact our children at all. The onus in keeping the reaches of scandals like this away from our inquisitive children's minds is on us, the parent. If there are shows you don't wish your child to see, setup parental controls on your television. If there are magazine articles you don't wish your child to see, keep the magazines out of your child's reach. If there are websites your children can go to that contain questionable material, then get some sort of Internet monitoring software, and install it to ensure that while they're clicking away, you know they're safe.

I've watched many episodes of the Hanna Montana show with my daughter. Every show details things such as bad choices, their consequences, and actions to set them right, and they promote morals I feel should be instilled in all children of viewing age. I, as a parent, am absolutely sure that Disney will not air a commercial which directs Miley's fans to go pick up a copy of her magazine spread in Vanity Fair. As far as I am concerned, as a father I know I monitor my child's actions well enough to ensure her exposure is virtually none to these Photos.

I also however, know that no system is 100% foolproof. I rest assured that in the off chance that my daughter is exposed to these photos she and I can have a discussion about the good, bad, and ugly of the photos, and that I have developed my daughter in such a way that she will understand it well. A lesson that even the best intentions get hit with road bumps along the way, and it is one's response to the trials which builds one's overall character.

Ultimately I love the Hanna Montana franchise on Disney, Miley's music, and its overall positive impact on my daughter and her friends. Miley's very public relationship with her dad is also quite responsible for some of the opening up my daughter has done since her mom and I divorced. I feel sure that my daughter's gain greatly outweighs the possible impact of negativity in her life if somehow I should slip in my responsibility to keep this questionable material away from my daughter.

Moving forward, I sincerely hope that while Miley's own parents may have a lot of explaining to do with the public, their child, and themselves, I hope everyone can start to see that a television, magazine, or the Internet is not an acceptable substitute for true parental involvement and guidance in their child's life.