Is TV Making Your Kids Have Sex?
Teen pregnancy has been in the news a lot recently. First there was the movie Juno. Then the news that Jamie Lynn Spears was pregnant at just 16. Followed by the revelation that VP nominee, Sarah Palin’s daughter is going to be a teenage mom. And now we know why. They’ve been watching TV with sexual content.
A new study shows that teens with a high exposure to sex on TV are more likely to be sexually active. The RAND study evaluated many different shows from several different genres and rated the amount of sexual content. Then from 2001 to 2004 they surveyed about 2,000 teens from ages 12 to 17 to determine who watched what. The study then focused on around 700 teens who had become sexually active by the third survey.
The study also found that teens in a two parent home were less likely to get pregnant. Additionally African-Americans, girls and teens with behavioral problems were more likely to get pregnant or get somebody pregnant.
I’m not sure how I feel about this study. I’m no doctor and I haven’t read the full study, but how can they be sure the correlation is sexually explicit shows on TV and not something else such as lack of education or low self-esteem. Maybe it’s actually the other way around. Maybe teens who are sexually active are more likely to watch TV shows with sexual content. When I see data that says kids from two-parent households are having sex less it makes me think it has more to do with parenting then TV. Single parents may not be home as much because they may have to work longer hours so it give a teen an opportunity to watch more TV or have some alone time with a member of the opposite sex. When parents are divorce kids may have feelings of guilt or inadequacy which could cause them to seek love from somewhere else.
In any event, parents (whether two-parent households, single-parent households, blended households or any other family dynamic) can make a difference. There is no doubt there is a lot of sex on TV (and in the movies, music, magazines, books, advertising, etc.). So parents need to talk to their teens about all this sex.
- Watch programs together and discuss them with your teen.
- Don’t be afraid to have the sex talk.
- You can’t be with your teen every second of every day so teach them right from wrong.
- Tell them what your expectations are.
- Ask their opinions.
- Gage how much they already know and teach them what they don’t.
- Make sure they understand the possible consequences of sex (pregnancy, STD, reputation, broken heart, etc.)
- Talk AND Listen!
You will likely get the eye roll and a big groan, but that’s ok. I’ve actually grown found of the eye roll. I consider it to be acknowledgment that they heard me speaking to them. It’s all the in I need to start a conversation with my teens. And that’s what we need to be doing. Taking.
Tags: CNN, Sex, sex on TV, talking to teens about sexRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Sex
1 opinion for Is TV Making Your Kids Have Sex?
Paul
Nov 6, 2008 at 10:42 pm
I would say that teen sexual promiscuity primarily comes from values instilled early on about sex, combined with social pressures.
Influences from TV might influence the extremely susceptible, but really TV doesn’t have nearly as much of an influence as parents and peer pressures.
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