preview

How Does MTV Affect Teen Pregnancy

Decent Essays
Open Document

The MTV show “16 and Pregnant” and their spin-offs such as “Teen Mom” and “Teen Mom 2”, it was started in 2009 and is still airing new episodes. The program shows teenage girls dealing with the repercussions of being pregnant while in high school and after delivering their baby. MTV follows around several teenagers in their everyday life, whether it is dealing with the father of the child or their family and friends. Furthermore, after an episode airs the show promotes a website named Stayteen.org, it is meant to educate teens on sexual health, give advice and promote teens to stay teens. Stayteen.org believes that “The more you know about issues like sex, relationships, abstinence, and birth control, the better prepared you’ll be to make informed choices for …show more content…

“Only 40 percent of teenage mothers ever graduate high school; two-thirds of families begun by an unmarried teen mother are poor. So what does MTV do? It shows how cool teen pregnancy is with a new reality series,” says Media Research Center. The Media Research Center sees MTV normalizing pregnancy in ages of 15 to 19.
In response to critics of “16 and Pregnant”, MTV uses “Teen Mom” to give a realistic view of life with a child while “16 and Pregnant” just showed moments of the pregnancy and the baby shower. “Teen Mom” shows the struggle the teenagers go through which ranges from backlash from their family to financial issues, and they show this through the many arguments on the show such as between mother and father of the child or mom versus teenager. However, even though “Teen Mom” showed another side it still received criticism. “MTV chooses to focus on the girls' volatile relationships with the babies' fathers or their new body piercings and tattoos”, says Melissa Henson director of communications at Parents Television Council in an interview with

Get Access