On the other hand, if your teenagers have already become fans of questionable media content, you face an entirely different challenge. You can start operating under the new standard "from this day forward," but you and your spouse must determine how to deal with the garbage already holed up in your child's entertainment collection.

Here are some possible scenarios:

• After discovering the need for discernment, your teen may feel supernaturally convicted and voluntarily purge the junk from his CD and movie library and change his own TV viewing habits

• You can humbly accept responsibility for taking too long to "set the boundaries," and agree to replace the offending selections with ones that meet the family standard. Since you're picking up the tab, you may even want to limit "substitutes" to edifying projects by popular Christian artists, or movies you've prescreened.

• A local pawn shop might pay two or three bucks apiece for the discs, videos and video games you're anxious to get rid of. Since you probably don't want to put these products back into circulation, you can agree to purchase them from your child at the same rate and then break out the sledge hammer and the Hefty bag. (Hey, they're yours now. You can do anything you want with them!)

• If you have one or two "out-of-bounds" products still in nearly new condition, you can try returning them to the store that sold them to your child. Some retailers will refund the purchase price -or offer store credit- to a parent who makes a return because of its offensive content.