The sexy-photo scandal involving Miley Cyrus has made a lot of parents mad, including me.

As the father of three young girls willing to watch endless episodes of Hannah Montana and anything else the Disney Channel offers up, I have a vested interest in the way this thing plays out.

I had misgivings about Miley's character, Hannah Montana, from the first time I heard my daughters singing along to one of her songs. "How long," I wondered aloud, "before this one turns wild like some of the other once-wholesome Disney characters?"

Now that Vanity Fair magazine has shown Cyrus clutching a bed-sheet in a suggestive pose that's clearly inappropriate for any 15-year-old, whom do we blame for our feelings of disenchantment? There are plenty of candidates.

We can hold Miley Cyrus responsible, but that would mean assigning to her the adult reasoning and judgment capacity that was absent from the decision to shoot the offensive photos.

Next on the list of possibilities are Miley's parents, Billy Ray Cyrus and his wife, Tish, who have said they left the photo shoot before celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz encouraged their daughter to pose for what Leibovitz called a "classic portrait."

But before we throw stones at Mr. and Mrs. Cyrus, we should acknowledge how difficult it is to always make the right choices for our own children. How much more difficult would it be to remain consistent in that area if our child were an international sensation?

To put Miley's popularity in perspective, one commentator noted that the words "Miley Cyrus" cause nearly as many Internet search-engine hits as "Iraq war." That's a lot of attention for a young girl and her parents to handle well.

So how about Leibovitz? Disney executives certainly blame her and Vanity Fair magazine for creating a situation, as quoted by The Associated Press, "to deliberately manipulate a 15-year-old in order to sell magazines."

But for Disney to point fingers at Leibovitz and the publication she works for is akin to the pot calling the kettle black.

Miley's likeness is used under the Disney logo to sell a lot more than magazines. The New York Times reports that retail sales for the Hannah Montana franchise are expected to reach $1 billion this year.

As tempting as it is to blame Disney for our displeasure, we cannot claim a surprise attack here. Every Disney story from Cinderella to Snow White contains an evil thread to counterbalance the good.

From that view, this could be the scripted scary portion of the Hannah Montana story: The wicked celebrity photographer tricks her parents into leaving, then uses her evil lens to steal Hannah's innocence, and with it her wholesome reputation.

If that's the storyline, look for Hannah to prevail in the end and live happily ever after. But wait. It was Miley who was tricked into believing she could have "the best of both worlds," to borrow a line from Hannah's signature song.

Do you see how easy it is to become wrapped up in the illusion? Think how confused our Hannah-hungry daughters must feel.

If there's anyone to blame for the disenchantment we parents are experiencing, it's we parents. Had we not allowed the door to the Disney Channel to open so widely, we wouldn't have to be dealing with this mistaken-Miley mess.

It's a big, heavy door, and a hard one to close. I, for one, however, am putting my shoulder into it.

Mark Rutledge can be contacted at mrutledge@coxnc.com.