On his Web site, www.minorcon.org, Paul Petersen asks, “…do the brilliant music and his performance skills make up for the indebtedness and questionable personal conduct?”

Of course, Paul was talking about Michael Jackson. Paul is an advocate for protecting children who are in the entertainment business. He was one of those children. You may recall him when he was on The Donna Reed Show. Paul and I have exchanged emails in the past after he’d read one of my Huffington Post blogs on the subject in which he’s passionate. I believe I was writing about so-called “reality” shows and felt they crossed the line, especially when children were involved. Quite often, it’s a pushy parent desperate to get their child under those bright, unforgiving lights. But what about the children who are infused with talent?

Is there a way we can allow these children to express themselves, make a career from their talent and not lose their very soul? We all have seen the early footage of a very young Michael Jackson belting out a song and slip-sliding rhythmically across the floor. He was a talented wunderkind brimming to entertain. And it wasn’t just a fluke, because if we fast forward to when he was a young man, he continued to awe us with his measured moves and dance steps that appeared to be impossible, yet effortless. So what went wrong?

The question is rhetorical, the answer complicated. Do we forbid children from being a part of the industry in order to protect them? Yet, how could we deny Michael Jackson and other talented children the opportunity to display their gifts? It’s easy to blame the handlers and those who use these talents as a cash cow, but society must take some responsibility as well because “celebrity” is a curious phenomenon. Performers perform for our entertainment and we pay them to do so. Then something occurs where we act as though we own them and have a right to know about every aspect of their life. When it is a child, imagine how confusing that must be. I wouldn’t doubt that they’d all like to shout, “Leave me Alone!”

Sure, Michael encouraged much of the media mayhem, but it’s all he knew from early on. Therefore, the question remains, how do we make sure children can still entertain us without being thrown to the wolves? How do we make sure that they aren’t going to grow up more dysfunctional than the rest of us? Perhaps the answer lies within us, a celebrity-driven society hoping to be a part of something bigger than itself.