Newsweek reports yet another alarming “trend,” although it might just be another oddball story you’d see on Jenny Jones and Montel Williams.

A while back, we heard about the phony “oral sex” fad among teens, and now, Newsweek treats us to the “teen prostitute” story, “This Could Be Your Kid,” about girls on the prowl for quick buck and a good time.

A trend? Who knows. If so, one question is in order: Where are their parents?

The alleged prostitutes don’t fit the profile; they don’t seem to be bad girls. Consider 17-year-old Stacy.

An encounter with a guy who bought her clothes “taught Stacey a lesson: ‘Potentially good sex is a small price to pay for the freedom to spend money on what I want.’ The easiest way, she discovered, was to offer her body in trade. Stacey, who lives with her parents in an upscale neighborhood, gets good grades in high school and plans to try out for the tennis team, began stripping for men in hotel rooms in exchange for money to buy clothes – then went on to more intimate activities. She placed ads on a local telephone personals service, offering ‘wealthy, generous’ men ‘an evening of fun’ for $400. All the while, she told her parents she was out with friends or at the mall, and was careful to be home before her midnight curfew.”

By now you must be asking what planet are Stacy’s parents living on, and the same of parents whose daughters are tacking a similar course.

Malls, the magazine reports, those places so many parents use as babysitters, are prime recruiting grounds for pimps.

But they aren’t the problem.

Unsupervised 13-year-olds run thither and yon at the mall or elsewhere, with uncovered midriffs and belly rings, tongue studs and purple hair, yapping on cell phones. Parents install phones and computers in the teenager’s bedroom – easy and private access to potentially bad friends and porn, or worse, some predator who wants to make a date.

The other day, gubernatorial candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger said the danger time for kids home alone is 3-6 p.m. Maybe so, but too many children are unsupervised in general. And let’s not tip-toe around the truth: These ills are largely the result of liberal-feminist indoctrination on sexuality, marriage and “freedom.”

We teach our children that nothing is wrong with a little sex or dressing like a slut. Mothers work outside the home and refuse to supervise their children. Fathers cannot, or will not, do likewise, or assert themselves as head of the household. The feminists told husbands and fathers to shut up long ago, and they did.

This was a monumental mistake, for male authority sets the ultimate standard for teaching and discipline. When girls and boys run wild, either no father or a weak father, wringing his hands in fear of his children and wife, is in the background.

Children cannot be raised properly unless both parents agree that control and discipline must be asserted. Apparently, parents no longer know this.

The teen prostitutes fad might be much ado about nothing, but rutting, promiscuous teenagers in general aren’t. Neither are the packs of scantily clad little girls and menacing boys roaming the malls.

If your 15-year-old is turning tricks for fancy clothes or a cheap thrill, or simply getting in trouble, look in the mirror.

You’ll see at least half the problem.

Syndicated columnist R. Cort Kirkwood is managing editor of the Daily News-Record in Harrisonburg, Va. His e-mail address is: [email protected].