And we wonder why America has problems!

Virgin Mobile, a cellphone company, and National Network for Youth (NN4Y), a Washington lobbying group for homeless youth, have come up with a truly innovative idea for clothing homeless teens. They decided last week to begin testing this campaign. I'm sure every American parent will applaud their efforts and encourage their children to participate.

The way the campaign works is this: teenagers will film themselves doing a strip-tease and post the videos on the web. For every hit the video gets, clothing companies will donate new clothes for homeless teens. The "Strip2Clothe" campaign's slogan is "You take off yours, we donate ours."

I'm sure there are many of you who think I'm making this up. I wish I were! Virgin Mobile says not to worry. They have "established good taste criteria." "[We] believe that [the] promotion will result in thousands of new clothes being provided for those in need." And, they say, their criteria includes no nudity. I'm not sure there is a "good taste" way to suggestively take off your clothes to music in a video. And if we're talking hormonal teenagers here, who knows what can happen! Is this not promoting child pornography? What about parental consent for this thing? Can you imagine a parent seeing his/her child in something like that, and the kid says, "Oh, it's OK. It's for charity." I would OWN Virgin Mobile if that happened to me!

There is a ray of hope, though. At least some of the 150 charities who are members of NN4Y say they are appalled and have had their names removed from the site.

"Strip videos don't take off with some." The Dallas Morning News; July 14, 2008; p. 9A.