What do you think about "Twerking"? Is this dance craze a sign that the youth of today are become over-sexualized?

I guess the big controversy surrounding this dance craze first started when 33 high school students from San Diego were suspended for filming themselves twerking on school property.

This raised many questions about the provocative dance, and whether it was a reflection of youth culture today, our collective approach towards sexuality, and also whether TV shows and music videos were corrupting young people to new levels of depravity.

Firstly, for those of you who are a little confused about what 'Twerking" actually is, you may want to watch this reference video before reading further:

My first thought about twerking was that it did seem overtly sexual, and as a father of a young girl, I don't know how comfortable I'd be if my daughter thought this kind of 'entertainment' was the norm.

Some of the twerking videos posted on YouTube, often by teenage girls, are tantamount to light porn.

But then, I think back to my teenage years, and the kind of music that was popular when I was younger...

When I was in high-school, the "popular" kids were listening to artists like Sisqo... yeah, the guy who is probably best known for his hit-single The Thong Song:

Based on that example, I'd say teenagers haven't really become more depraved in the past decade - they've simply continued doing what they've always done: Enjoyed making their parents cringe and recoil with equal measures of concern, disgust, and horror.

On the other side though, I was watching the Miley Cryus' video to We Can't Stop the other day, and there were a couple of worrying thoughts that crossed my head (once I got over the shocking fact that Miley has started morphing into Irish pop-duo Jedward).

I noticed that actually, for an artist who's primary audience is impressionable young girls, her image is pretty "heavy".

Not only is there a twerking scene and unsupervised young adults partying and eating sandwiches stuffed with dollar bills... But for most of the video, Ms. Cyrus is rolling around and grinding against thin-air as if she was on one of those popular late-night phone-in shows:

And I guess that's the core issue. We all understand that this kind of material is out there, but we struggle to accept that the young people we care about are actively seeking it out and enjoying it.

Ultimately, it's my duty as a parent to be freaked out and repulsed when my daughter gets to an age and mindset when twerking might seem like a good idea.

But at the same time, I remember being 15 and coming out of the cinema with my friends after watching Cruel Intentions (yeah, that's right, the R-rated movie where Sarah Michelle Gellar makes a bet with her step-brother, offering to sleep with him if he manages to have sex with the innocent young virgin from school who is saving herself for true love.)

The other big debate at the moment is whether girls like Miley Cyrus and fellow party-goer Ke$ha are actually helping maintain that honourable heritage of objectifying women in mainstream media, or whether they are actually empowering young women by encouraging them to make the most of their "big booties" and so forth.

It is true that a decade ago, many of the dance crazes were sparked by MTV videos of male rap-stars and their female backing-dancers.

Nowadays, any girl willing to don hot-pants and jiggle her behind can bypass MTV and 50 Cent, and rack up some views on YouTube all by herself.

Is that empowering, or the end of the world?