Adolescent Sexuality - Media Influence

Media Influence

Modern media contains more sexual messages than was true in the past and the effects on teen sexual behavior remain relatively unknown. Only 9% of the sex scenes on 1,300 of cable network programming discusses and deals with the negative consequences of sexual behavior. The Internet may further provide adolescents with poor information on health issues, sexuality, and sexual violence.

A study on examining sexual messages in popular TV shows found that 2 out of 3 programs contained sexually related actions. 1 out of 15 shows included scenes sexual intercourse itself. Shows featured a variety of sexual messages, including characters talking about when they wanted to have sex and how to use sex to keep a relationship alive. Some researchers believe that adolescents can use these messages as well as the sexual actions they see on TV in their own sexual lives.

The results of a study by Deborah Tolman and her colleagues indicated that adolescent exposure to sexuality on television in general does not directly affect their sexual behaviors, rather it is the type of message they view that has the most impact. What really affected adolescents was what type of societal gender stereotypes they were seeing enacted in the sexual scenes they saw on TV.

What made girls feel they had less control over their sexuality was when they saw women attracting men by objectifying themselves and when they observed men behaving as if commitment wasn’t important. The consequences of this, is that these girls may believe that they should present themselves as sexual objects, comply to the demands of boys and not listening to their own wants and needs. On the other hand, girls who saw women on TV who refuted men’s sexual advances usually felt more comfortable talking about their own sexual needs in their sexual experiences. They were more able to set sexual limits, therefore held more control over their sexual experiences. Findings for boys were less clear; those who saw dominant and aggressive men actually had less sexual experiences. Perhaps there were less effects on boys because this Heterosexual Script does not affect them as deeply as it does girls.

However some scholars have argued that such claims of media effects have been premature. Furthermore, according to US government health statistics, teens have delayed the onset of sexual intercourse in recent years, despite increasingly amounts of sexual media.