Whether a precious little snowflake needs protection from the realities of the world depends entirely upon your own snowlflake’s gender as well as culpability.  No big surprise there, of course, as we all, as parents, take our children’s side no matter what.  Well, mostly we do.  But sometimes we shouldn’t.

Witness the recent incident in a Massachusetts community and the practice of “sexting.”  For those who don’t know what that term means – - taking nude or partially nude photos of your girlfriend and “texting” them by cell phone to your friends.

Harmless, you say?  Who’s the victim?  Never mind the girl is a young teen, not over the age of majority yet.  Never mind nude photos of young teens are against the law.  Never mind the law, frankly.  Everyone’s doing it, and everyone considers it a joke.  Something like that could ruin the lad’s life, stay with him forever.

Those were the defenses offered by one of the young men’s fathers in explaining away his son’s moronic actions.  His precious little snowflake shouldn’t pay a price for having broken the law – - “kiddie” porn laws don’t apply in situations like this.  Kids can’t be guilty of breaking the “kiddie” porn laws.  That’s what Dad thinks, anyway.

Sure, a Dad is going to do whatever he has to do to protect his own.  We all do that.  Even when that boy is well into adulthood, Dad will be there to defend him no matter what.

But, there’s a young girl involved here, too.  Her nudish indiscretion has caused her embarrassment in their community, and her important parts have been seen by many others as a result of the young men’s little games.  It’s most likely she didn’t sign on for all of that when she partially disrobed for the phone camera.

Taking the photo is one thing.  Passing it along to all your friends is another altogether, and was not likely to have been part of the bargain.  So, what about the young girl?  And her family?

Catching your kid making out with a boyfriend/girlfriend on the living room couch is one thing; even catching them in the bedroom is just that one thing.  You deal with your child within the family home and the family context, and perhaps you have a chat with the boyfriend’s/girlfriend’s parents, too.

But passing around the photos like it’s a badge of courage or a medal of some honor to all your friends takes it to another, and harmful, level.  At that point, it’s not just some prank.  A young girl has been hurt, as has her family.  And, she will have to live with that for the rest of her life.

But, the boys were just being boys, Dad says.  You know how it is.  So, the lesson we need to take from this silly little drama seems to be one of distinctions:  precious little “snowflakes” and precious little “snowflakettes” sounds about right.

And, maybe we need to distinguish the degree of protection needed for each while we’re at it:  “snowflakes” are deserving of more latitude than “snowflakettes” because, well, boys will be boys. And, girls don’t matter anyway, do they?

Not sure her Dad would sign on to that sentiment, frankly.  As the father of four girls, neither would I.  There are consequences to every action we take in life.  Most are benign – - what to wear today, what to eat for lunch, what to watch on TV.  Some are not so benign – - like criminal acts and passing around nude photos of your “gal” to all your friends.

It’s never too young to teach our kids the law of consequences.  It’s a lesson that will stay with them the rest of their lives.