Yes, teenagers do drink and smoke and have sex. This even happens in small, middle class, midwest towns. IMO, you can’t just get all high and mighty with teenagers and forbid them to do things. This makes them want to do it even more it also *closes off the lines of communication.* I have tried to explain to my girls even before they were teens why these things are not good for them. I hope I have gotten through to them. I have always stressed to them that they can always tell me anything that is going on in their lives and I will listen. Many of my daughter’s friends tell me that they can not talk to their parents because the parents get all high and mighty and don’t listen to them. I can not hire three bodyguards to follow my daughters around all of the time. The best I can hope for is that I am raising kids to have good sense and that they will always feel like they can talk to me. Unfortunately in the real world of raising teenagers you can not just forbid your teens from doing something because you find it unacceptable.

hopefully these kids will grow up to be responsible adults, but in my opinion the behavior is risky, and could have pretty negative consequences…why take a chance?

this is so obnoxious, no one would care about them doing these if they weren’t micheal jordans kids beucase yes every teenager is doing this kind of stuff. I am a teenager at their school and my guess is it isn’t anyone at our school letting these pictures leak. I am upset that people are judging them and writing this article. Lay off of them!

Just because “everyone is doing it” does NOT make it right….That is a classic phrase, but it will always ring true in my book!

Where were these boy’s parent’s???

Didn’t realise the difference in America. I’m from England where the ages are 18 for drinking and 16 for regular smoking and sex.

Wow some of you are VERY NAIVE if you think this isn’t pretty common behavior. No one was saying it was acceptable but IT IS common.

I wonder where they are on vacation. Perhaps they are outside the US where there is no drinking age or the drinking age is 16 or so. Then what they were doing would not be illegal. I think smoking and drinking, for many teens, is just a normal part of growing up and being somewhat rebellious. I know when I was 16/17/18, I also went out and smoke and drank and danced provacatively. Not ALL teens do, but many of them do. How do I know?
Because I am now a succeesful, educated high school teacher and mother of 6. I don’t see these photos as anything to raise a ruckus about.

I don’t see it necessary to insult all other 16-18 year olds just to make these two feel better about themselves. Otherwise at the end of every story you run you should add, “I’m sure so and so isn’t the only person in history to do such and such.” What’s the point?

I did this sort of thing as a teenager, but in Australia. I was a regular bingedrinker at the age of 14/15. I was lucky that cigarette and “other” smoke made me sick, or I would have been doing that too. Funnily enough, I don’t drink at all now, except for cooking with red wine occasionally.

Our legal drinking and smoking age here is 18.

I teach at a university here and a lot of my first year students are still in this boozing phase where they go out twice a week and drink until they’re blotto. Unfortunately we have a social drinking culture… because it’s legal, it’s acceptable behaviour for adults, so kids like to do it too.

I’m not condoning this behaviour, but it does happen (and not just in the US).

Who can really judge these boys? Things aren’t always the way the seem. 20-odd years ago my friends, my older brother and I had some pretty wild parties as well – no drugs or sex back then but plenty of drinks to go around and a lot of fun. I’m talking two or three such parties a year here, the rest of the time we behaved really well
Nobody who knows us now would believe that but if there had been photos of us from those days, oh my god! I’d have been labelled a pretty bad kid I suppose.