We cannot expect young people to demonstrate good character and ethics if they have none to offer.  Children today are suffering from a transcultural epidemic that will have a devastating impact upon our world if left unattended. It is called ethical impairment.  

Ethical impairment reveals itself through symptoms like dishonesty, irresponsibility, disrespect, hatred, jealousy, greed, and indifference to others.  Studies show these attributes are afflicting young people today more than ever before. Ethical impairment also leads to anti-social behaviors and conditions such as violent crime, poverty, substance abuse, deception, ignorance, dependency, immorality, and even the new phenomenon of cyber-bullying.  For example, some children are now planning and videotaping violent attacks on others and posting them on popular websites such as YouTube. One such incident in Lakeland, Florida (March 2008) earned national attention as six teen females were arrested for luring a 16 year-old girl into a home, beating her unconscious, and taping the assault “for the express purpose of putting it on the Internet”, reported the Associated Press. The teens said they did it to impress their boyfriends and become famous. This is not an isolated phenomenon. The Josephson Institute discloses that 88% of all boys and over 75% of girls surveyed said they had hit someone in the past 12 months because they were angry (2006 Report Card on Ethics and American Youth).