Medias Effect on Teen Sexuality

Running Header: The Media’s Effect on Teen Sexuality
Running Header: The Media’s Effect on Teen Sexuality
The Media’s Effect on Teen Sexuality
Deneen Dalmas
National American University

Abstract
This paper deals with the effects of the media on teen sexuality and what results from it. The sexual content contained in the media uncovers the effects on adolescent’s attitude about sex, their beliefs, and behaviors. There are so many types of media that are geared towards adolescents; it makes it hard for teen’s to ignore. Teens are at a stage in their life where they are discovering who they are and are beginning to have new feelings which are usually centered on their bodies. These feelings make them especially vulnerable to outside influences. They want to be accepted and often go to great lengths to fit in. One of the definitions of sexuality is an organism’s preparedness for engaging in sexual activity. An adolescent is not prepared for the onset of puberty not to mention sexual activity. This is the reason it is so important for parents to talk to their kids about the changes that are going on and provide a solid foundation from which their children can grow from. Once that foundation is set then the schools can further educate the kids on what steps can be taken in terms of safe sex and give them options.

The Media’s Effect on Teen Sexuality
Premature sexuality is a widespread problem in the United States. According to Ray Eldon Hiebert, (n.d.) “The United States has the highest rate of teenage pregnancies, teenage birth, and teenage abortion of any industrialized nation” (p. 1). The average teenager deals with the media all day long, they wake up listening to the radio and talk with friends about what happened on the previous days episode of their favorite program. Once they get home from school, they are flipping channels, surfing the internet or reading the latest issue of their favorite magazine. This brings to mind a quote I read by Larry D. Rosen (2007) “Kids are making media a full time job with overtime” (p. 5). Everywhere you look you see teenagers with cell phones with internet access, MP3 players, I-Pods or some sort of device that connects them to media in one way or the other. Statistical information and studies have shown that the media in all forms may assist teens in participating in sexual activities before they are mature enough to handle it.
Although the sexual content in the media can affect anyone, adolescents are the most open to it. This exposure can occur during the developmental stage when their roles in terms of gender, attitudes and behavior regarding sex are being shaped. (Pediatrics, 1995, 298-300) At this stage in their development, teens are most at risk due to the fact that the way they perceive facts will not allow them to properly analyze the messages presented in the media. There are three stages of development: early, middle and late adolescence. Since during the late adolescent stage physiological development is generally complete, only the two early stages will be discussed. During the early stage, 12-14 years, teenagers are very self-conscious about the changes in their bodies and often compare themselves against what they feel is the ideal body image. This is especially prevalent in girls who are obsessed with being thin and are constantly searching for ways to lose weight. This self-consciousness carries over to the middle stage of development. But now teens are preoccupied with sex and feel like they are invincible which often results in engaging in high risk behavior. This lack of development causes them to not think about their actions or the outcome. (Allen et al, 2011)
Age or stage of development is also influential in how a teen interprets sexual content. Younger youths are less likely to be influenced than their older counterparts. For example, mature young women are more curious about sexual content in the media as a way of “learning the rules, rituals and skills of romance and relationships” (Greenberg, 1993, p. 143). The media shows how a person is supposed to look as well as how to become popular and attract boys. They relate to characters that have similar issues, and show how they resolve their issues not to mention examples of how to behave in situations involving sex. This is not just limited to age it occurs over all demographics.
Socio-demographic factors, for example, sex, age and ethnicity have been linked to adolescent viewing preferences and their understanding and interpretation of sexual material in the media. Adolescent girls are more likely to choose programs that have sexual content than boys and spend time watching it, often in the company of their parents. A study was done of African American girl’s ages 14 to 18 years who watched shows that portrayed women as sex objects have multiple partners or a history of sexually transmitted diseases. (Brown et al, 1993). Although socio-demographics play a part, many studies were done on the subject of teenagers and the amount of time they spend with the media and its effects on them.
For example, a survey was done by Steven Martino and several other Doctors of Philosophy with 1792 adolescents reported their viewing habits and sexual experience and responded to questions in reference to adolescent sexual initiation. The results were that teens that viewed television with more sexual content were more likely to initiate sexual intercourse. Collins et al 2004 commented that “Youths in the 90 percentile of television sex viewing had a projected probability of intercourse initiation that was approximately double that of youths in the 10th percentile for all ages’ studies” (Collins et al., 2004). It was also noted that even programs that simply talked about sex had the same effects as watching sexual behavior. Also, about 80% of all movies shown on network or cable television stations contain some form of sexual content. Reportedly there is an average of 2.9 television sets in most students’ households, 75% had access to cable television and more than half of them had TV’s in their rooms. With all this access to the media it’s no surprise that teen’s exposure to sex at any age has an effect on them. (Martino, et al, 2006). Extensive studies of not just television sex, but other media such as videos that youth should not be exposed to but have access to, have an alarming effect as well.
Research psychologist and teacher at California State University, Larry Rosen conducted a study of teens after being exposed to hardcore porn. Of the teens studied, 2/3rds of the boys and 40% of the girls wanted to try some of the behaviors they saw. “In fact, 31% of the boys and 18% of the girls did so within a few days” (Rosen, 2007, p. 143). Video games are another source of media that is popular with teens. Larry Rosen also did a random sample of video games that are rated “T” for teens. Even though 15% were said to have sexual themes, in actuality the number of sexual themes was twice that number. Nearly 1 in 4 of the so called “T” rated games contains profanity and partial nudity. When children are exposed to games that show women as sex objects, they’re more likely to objectify women, form negative stereotypes and develop negative attitudes towards girls as a whole (Rosen, 2007, p. 143).
Most people think of media as television and music but it comes in all forms. Magazines are also a form of media. The average teen magazine contains column inches per issue on sexual topics. Girls who read teen magazines are constantly reminded that in order to attract a boy they needed to be beautiful, and that it was ok for women to become the object of their desires. Teen magazines are filled with thin scantily clad teens which further affect how girls view themselves. And as mentioned earlier, girls especially are already self-conscious and are constantly looking for ways to lose weight so they can look like the girls that are portrayed in the magazine.
Popular music is another form of media which may also have an effect on teens participating in sex too early. The average youth listens to music 1.5 to 2.5 hours in a single day. Sexual themes are common in most of the music that teens listen to on a daily basis, and range from being romantic and playful to degrading and hostile (Martino et al., 2006). Music that contains corrupt sexual lyrics is related to advances in a range of sexual activities among adolescents.
A lot of today’s popular music that is aimed at teenagers contains sexually suggestive lyrics. Studies have shown that those teenagers that listen to that type of music are having intercourse before those that listen to other types of songs. In 2001, a telephone study was performed where most of the participants were virgins. In 2002 and 2004 a follow up was done to see if their music choice had any bearing on their behavior towards sex. One teen stated that she doesn’t listen to the lyrics she just enjoys the beat. Seriously, this does not mean the message in the song is not being imprinted in their brain (Pediatrics, 2006). David Walsh, a psychologist who heads the National Institute on Media and the Family states, “The brains impulse control undergoes major construction during teen years at the same time that an interest in sex starts to blossom”. When you factor in the sexual lyrics, a teen that listens to this type of music all the time, would be at a greater risk of sexual behavior (Associated Press, 2006).
Many of the music videos are focused on the younger generation and are highly sexualized. Several studies linked music videos to: (1) Teens who watched 1 hour of MTV are more likely to approve of premarital sex (2) Those exposed to more degrading music videos were more likely to initiate sex and view women as sex objects (3) Girls who viewed more than 14 hours of rap music videos per week were more likely to have multiple sex partners and are more likely to have an sexually transmitted disease (Rosen, 2007)
These facts further support the exposure and effects on teenagers the media has and the sexual innuendoes that exist.
Another study was done by Rebecca Lake and Keith King from the University of Cincinnati where they examined the extent and type of sexual messages depicted in music videos and to access whether sexual depictions differed based on music television network and gender of lead character(s). They looked at attire, dance/behavior and location of sexual activity. The results showed that a large amount of the music videos contained sexual themes and images of sex. It also showed that not only was the clothing worn by the women more sexually provocative than the men, their dance behavior was as well. It was also stated that “Such depictions of sexual activity may affect adolescents’ perceptions of and involvement in sexual behavior” (Research Consortium Abstracts, 2005, p. A-41).
Due to the lack of effective sexual education at home and school, the media has become important sources of sexual information for the adolescents in the United States. The abundance of media viewed by teenagers contains images of sex and sexual innuendoes. In the most recent content analysis of American primetime TV, “more than 3/9th of the shows had sexual content; yet less than 15% contained any references to responsible sexuality, abstinence, and the risk of pregnancy or the risks of sexually transmitted infections”. (Brown & Strasburger, 2007) The media has the power to influence teenager’s beliefs and attitudes when it comes to sex. Instead of being the problem it could be part of the solution. By exposing our youth to more responsible portrayals of sex and promote the use of birth control the media can put our teens in the right direction. Parents can also assist in reducing the amount of sexually explicit music and television watched by teenagers. They can watch more TV with their children and have discussions about what they see, and keep an open line of communication. They can also support their children by showing them the repercussions of having premarital sex, such as pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases as well as the positive side of abstaining from sex until they are married. The community can also get involved by meeting teens on their turf, such as the internet.
A study was done by Deb Levine from University of California Berkeley that used MySpace as a part of an outreach effort to deliver health related messages and intervention to teens. Although there was some difficulty reaching teens that do not have internet access a clinic online social network was used. The study indicated that social network services have the strong potential for reaching not only teens that have internet access but diverse youth as well. The information provided critical health and other information to help educate teens. (Levine, 2011, p. 8). More programs like this should be implemented that use the internet as a positive influence on our teens, instead of the negativity that surrounds them every day. Even though sex education in school continues to be a touchy subject and the center of controversy for many, in this day and age it is indeed necessary. Teen pregnancy is definitely on the rise. This year in Memphis, Tennessee a local high school reported that approximately 90 students are pregnant or have already given birth. (Kinney, 2011). This is outrageous, if something is not done and soon this generation will take the phrase “Baby Boomers” to another level.
As previously stated, there are many debates over sex education in schools but do people realize what sex education is? “Sex education is the process of gaining knowledge about sexuality, sex and intimate relationships” (Shtarkshall, et al, 2007, p. 39). Sources of sexual information often come from not only parents, friends and the media but school as well. Even though this is a topic of controversy teens are going to learn about sex one way or another, why not educate them properly? There are many approaches that can be taken, teaching abstinence, birth control and safe sex. If parents work in conjunction with the schools in education our youth, what difference does it make where it comes from, as long as the source is reliable and provides the information necessary. Do we really want our children learning about sex from TV, movies, video games, music and each other?
In conclusion, the media may be the reason for premarital sex and that this is a wide spread problem that will not simply go away and definitely cannot be ignored. We need to understand this issue if we are to prepare young people fully and effectively for their sexual maturation. It is also known that sexual behavior among teens occur in social situations, and is influenced by social pressures and values. As stated earlier if we are to help teens it first has to start at home. Parents must keep an open line of communication with their teens. Whether they want to accept it or not, the fact that is their child is having sex. A greater emphasis needs to be placed on developing the child’s confidence and self-worth. The main focus should not be on biology, programs need to be put in place to “explore the dilemmas and contradictions inherent in sexual behavior and to develop the necessary relationship skills”. (Coleman, J., & Roker, D., 1998).

References
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References: Coleman, J. & Roker, D. (1998). Teenage sexuality: health risk and education. Retrieved from http://google.com/books Collins, R Committee on Communications. (1995). American Acadamy of Pediatrics. Sexuality, contraception and the media. Pediatrics, 95,298-300. Depiction of sexuality in music videos. (2005). Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport: Research Consortium Abstracts, 76(1), A41 Dirty song lyrics can prompt early teen sex: degrading messages influence sexual behavior, study finds Greenberg, B. S., Brown, J. D., Buerkel, N. L., (Eds.). (2006). Media, sex and the adolescent. Cresskill, N. J., Hampton Press, 143-194. Haston, A. C., Wartella, E., Donerstein, E. (1998). Measureing the effects of sexual content in the media; a report to the Kaiser Family Foundation. Menlo Park, CA. Levine, D.. (2011). Using technology, new media, and mobile for sexual and reproductive health. Sexuality Research & Social Policy, 8(1), 18-26.  Martino, S Sexual material on American network television, television during the 1987-88 seasons. (1998). New York, N.Y. Planned Parenthood Foundation of America. Louis Harris & Associates. sexuality. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged. Retrieved April 07, 2011, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/sexuality. Smylie, L,. Medaglia, S. & Maticka-Tyndale, E. (2006). Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality. Retrieved from website: http://www.findarticles.com.