Teenagers with high levels of exposure to sexually explicit television programs are twice as likely as their peers, who watch fewer such shows, to be involved in a pregnancy over the following three years. This is according to a new RAND Corporation (USA) study published in the November edition of the journal Pediatrics. It is the first such study to establish the link between teenagers' exposure to sexual content on TV and pregnancies among girls or responsibility for pregnancies among boys.
"Adolescents receive a considerable amount of information about sex through television and that programming typically does not highlight the risks and responsibilities of sex," said Anita Chandra, the study's lead author and a behavioural scientist at RAND, a nonprofit research organisation.
"Our findings suggest that television may play a significant role in the high rates of teenage pregnancy in the United States."
The researchers say that exposure to sex on TV can create the perception among teenagers that there is little risk to engaging in sex without using contraceptives and such exposure can accelerate the initiation of sexual intercourse.
"The amount of sexual content on television has doubled in recent years, and there is little representation of safer sex practices in those portrayals," Chandra said. She said that parents should consider limiting their children's access to programming with sexual content and spending more time watching programs with their children so they can explain the consequences of sex.
The RAND study is based on a national survey of about 2,000 adolescents aged 12 to 17 who were recruited in 2001 and asked about their television viewing habits and sexual behaviour.
The participants were surveyed again in 2002 and in 2004. The latest analysis is based upon results from about 700 participants who had engaged in sexual intercourse by the third survey and reported their pregnancy history.
Researchers focused on 23 programs popular among teenagers that were widely available on broadcast and cable television, and contained high levels of sexual content (both depictions of sex as well as dialogue or discussion about sex). The shows included dramas, comedies, reality programs and animated shows.
"Television is just one part of a teenager's media diet that helps to influence their behaviour," Chandra said. "We should also look at the roles that magazines, the Internet, and music play in teens' reproductive health."
These are points that Focus on the Family Ireland reiterates.
“Children who watch sexually explicit programs are de-sensitized,” says Mervyn Nutley, director, Focus on the Family Ireland, a body that is in Ireland since 2003 having been in the USA for last 30 years.
“There is now such access to sexually explicit material. Unless someone is there to explain and to talk to teenagers about the potential damage, to police it to a degree, then it is telling these young people that this behaviour is acceptable and normal. Of course they think they are invincible and that they are not going to get pregnant or contract sexually transmitted diseases,” he told ciNews.
Mervyn feels that the internet and Bebo and texting are also very much part of the sexualisation of teenagers as young as 12 and 13.
“The TV is part of it but I would be much more concerned by the other forms of media like the internet and the message kids are getting through the pop culture. We don’t hear a lot of pop songs anymore; we don’t have Top of the Pops so a lot of it is from the internet. For example they are into rap which includes gangster rap and parents are probably not aware if the messages there - sexualized messages about women being used for sexual gratification and about guns and drugs. Not every teenager is into rap but many are, and they are being influenced by it.”
He advises parents to watch TV with their children, to be aware of what they are downloading from the internet, and what is on their Bebo page, and to know who their friends are (virtual and otherwise).
“We would discourage children from having a TV and a computer in the bedroom. Make sure as parents that you are aware of what your children are watching. Sit down with them every so often and ask 'what are you watching or listening to?' Not in a heavy way but in an interested way and say 'I like that or that’s very different to what I watched when I was a teenager', so that you are aware and interested and have the line of communications open and you are talking with them.”
He suggests that parents point out that they don't just disapprove of their children’s choice of programs, and their use of internet and texts but that there are very real dangers – not just pregnancy.
For example once a teenager’s personal details are on the Bebo page or texted to friends they can be circulated elsewhere or accessed by strangers. Their private details, which they may think they are just showing to their friends, are open to the world and can never be taken back.
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(Source: CIN)