Negative Effects Of Mass Media On Teen Sexuality

If adolescents see an unrealistic thin or a muscle toned body alot, it can have a huge impact on their body image and dieting behavior. “Body image ideals in the media have increased teenagers’ and some adults the desire for plastic surgery” (Raising Children, 2015). Seeing media that is violent in some ways can often enough make it more likely that someone will behave in a violent way, it can also influence other unhealthy or risky behavior, like smoking, drinking alcohol and taking other drugs. Other more powerful influences include family and friends. “Teen are twice as likely to have sex or engage in sexual acts if they see similar sexual behavior in the media. Many objects in the media that involve sex target teens” (Ransohoff, 2013). Reality TV shows and teen dramas often portray the popular or cool kids as the ones who are having sex so seeing it on TV might make teenagers think it is ok. In the movie when Caroline throws a party at Jakes house after a dance, everyone got drunk, they were all under age because they were all in high school and then most of them drove home drunk, some teens may think its ok to do this when its not at all

Many believe the children are solely responsible for their carelessness that results in early pregnancy. Looking at this problem more broadly, one can see all of the social changes that influence teen pregnancy. For example, the media promotes sex and relationships. According to the RAND Health researcher, Jeffrey Wasserman, children ages 12-18 who saw the most sex on television were twice as likely to initiate intercourse within the next year as to those who saw the least amount of sex in the media (2017). Many television shows and movies contain sexual scenes, but most of them don’t explain the risks of sexual activity. Moreover, teen pregnancy has become more widely accepted. While many still believe it’s wrong, this problem has become unfortunate but acceptable. With shows like 16 and Pregnant and Teen Mom, the mass media even rewards these teenages for their early pregnancies. The acceptance of early pregnancy has increased, but people are still embarrassed to talk about sex to children and teenagers. Teen pregnancy can be prevented, and it starts with a change in

* For teens, television is a major source of information about sex. A survey conducted in 1997 by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 61 per cent of young teens, ages 13-15, rated entertainment media as their top source of information on sexuality and sex health. This should concern parents because although two-thirds of TV shows contain sexual content, only one in ten includes any reference to safe sex or the consequences of unprotected sex.

The average American teenager watches three hours of television a day. Scientist Rebecca Collins conducted a study to see if watching sexual behavior on TV influenced teenagers’ own behavior. In her results, she found that watching shows with sexual content has a considerable

Popular media submits many teens to sexual content and influences their views on subjects such as teenage pregnancy. The article Evaluating the Impact of MTV’s 16 and Pregnant on Teen Viewers’ Attitudes About Teen Pregnancy takes a closer look at the relationship between the viewers of the show and their attitudes towards teen pregnancy. Three major weaknesses found after the review of the study are listed as follows; The study has several confounding variables, the sample group is rather small and taken from a single state within the US, and lastly, it makes claims without having sufficient evidence from its own findings as well as other studies. However, the way the study was conducted is relatively very

An average 6-11 year old watched 22 hours of TV a week and a combined average of 28 hours a week is spent on multiple media outlets. A tremendous climb of sexual content on TV has been occurring since the 1970’s; currently 70 percent of all TV programming includes sexual material increasing to 77 percent on prime time TV. Around 30 percent of the most watched child and teen programs contain sexual language, body attractiveness, and objectification of women’s bodies (Starr, 2012). The media outlets display popular culture that scream unhealthy messages to girls, burying healthy images instilled by parents that might be trying to break through. Girls are exposed to the messages so frequently that they cannot help but to absorb them and crave to become like the popular images. This leads to unhealthy values, attitudes, and thoughts held about oneself and

Sexuality and sex in America is a complicated subject in that there is little consensus on the topic of sex in, and the American media sends many mixed messages regarding sex and sexuality to everyone, not just to adolescents. Americans are aware of sex primarily through advertising (print media, commercials, etc.) as sex is used to sell anything and everything. The media also bombards Americans with sexuality and sex on television and in films. The sexuality of teenagers is not a straightforward issue in America either. Many parents do not discuss sex or sexuality with their children. There have been ongoing debates as to whether sexuality should be taught as part of school curricula because there are such a great deal of adolescents participating in reckless and/or dangerous sexual behaviors, largely because they are grossly uneducated about sex. The paper will reference the film Juno and other texts as a meditation on the relationship between adolescent sexuality and the media.

Research has greatly indicated and proven that media exposure has an impact on the normative perceptions of substance use and relationship behaviors among adolescents. Studies have shown that media content and patterns of usage are considerably related to adolescent perception of gender roles, romantic relationships, and sexual behavior. Repeated contact or subjection to sexualize subject matter on television or different forms of media has been related to individuals perceived normative gender roles (Herrett- Skjellum & Allen, 1996). Negative and socially impaired beliefs about relationships, for example such as ‘‘fate brings soul-mates together, disagreement is destructive to a relationship, partners should be able to sense each other’s thoughts and feelings’’ (Holmes, 2007). Also with persistent disclosure to sexually explicit content related with more positive attitudes or norms toward “uncommitted sexual exploration” as well (Brown and Bobkowski, 2011).

Since adolescents lives are based off technology and the media they are more likely to experience the effects of the media. Significant research has been done about how teenage girls are sexually objectified throughout the media we see today, which can have a negative impact on their physical and mental health. Teenage are portrayed an s sexual object and promoted to be sexually appealing, but cannot appear to be easy. A media literacy intervention presented by Amy Baker and Lyn Brown created this to offer girls and activist to challenge the sexualization of girls. To help girls think critically and try to promote change. This intervention was first implemented in Philadelphia, Maine, and New York City. The results of the intervention was that the content displayed was banned and did not have access to watch certain videos. Another problem that arose was that even though parents signed consent forms the parents were concerned with the content their children were viewing and the type of topics and questions it might raise frightened the parents. It was stated that, “Nonetheless, facilitators and girls considered the groups a success because they enabled media literacy and a sense of agency” (Baker, Brown, & Ragonese, 2016, pg.80). That the sexualization of teenage girls affects how they view themselves. The individual level issues found in this literature is that teenage girl’s self-image is harmed due to the sexualization depicted in the media. The sexualization of women to be sexy, can damage relationships through slut shaming. The systematic level issues is that the girls thought the intervention was a success, but the schools were concerned about the content being presented and what questions might arise from the girls who participated in the intervention. That the

Our sex saturated media is also generating conflict in young girls’ development. The portrayal of women as sexual objects is discussed in the article “The sexualization of Girls is Harmful” by Olivia Ferguson and Hayley Mitchell Haugen. The article cites statistics of “prime-time television shows popular among children” remarking that “12% of sexual comments involved sexual objectification toward women” and “23% of sexual behaviors involved leering, ogling or catcalling at female characters”.(par 6) The feature provides www.aboutkidshealth.ca/ as an “online resource for information about areas of children’s health and family life”. (Par 1) This web site states “depression, low self-esteem and eating disorders” as consequences for media sexualizing women. (Par 2) The research defines “the objectification theory as a psychological theory explaining the

There is a great debate on whether or not mass media has an influence on teenage pregnancy. A study done by the RAND Corporation shows that teens are twice as likely to have sex or engage in sexual acts if they see similar sexual behavior in the media. Many objects in the media that involve sex target teens. Reality TV shows and teen dramas often portray the "cool kids" as the ones who are having sex (Chandra).Today’s teens are highly influenced by what they see in the media and this can change their behavior and choices. Some will argue that the media doesn’t influence teenagers, but how can we be sure of that? Today, the media portray teen pregnancy in movies, television shows, magazines, music, news reports, and books. The problems

In today’s society violence and sexual content and the media have become an issue. Over time media has been polluted with sex and violence and continues to affect millions of teens. Media nowadays includes television, books, magazines, newspapers, the internet, movies, video games, and so much more. Adolescence is a time of self-identification and personal growth. During this time, adolescence experience decreases in family influences and increases in peer influences, yet socializing factors typical of adulthood such as college, employment and relationships. Teens today believe what they see and hear in the media that comes from their celebrity idols and think that it is socially acceptable and because of that it makes

Due to the effects of sexuality in the media, more teens are open to sexual acts and at a younger age now. Adolescents are now open to "hook-ups" or friends-with-benefits, where they have "casual sexual encounters at parties and clubs between youngsters who are not emotionally involved with one another" which are influenced by new techology and take away the "first date" which would help put safe sex into the teens minds (Friedman). Some folks are worried that the sex in the media will counteract sex education and do not include problems that having sexual intercourse can bring about. In his article "Sex, Violence and the Media", Charles S. Clark explains:

At the non-profit organization known as RAND Corporation researchers performed three surveys on about 2,000 teens between the ages of 12 to 17 from 2001 to 2004. The results were published in the November edition of the journal Paediatrics, in the publication they focused on 700 participants nationwide who had engaged in sexual intercourse by the third survey. (Landau E, 2008, November 03) The researchers determined that even with the other related factors such as demographics and risk-taking behaviours put into play the connection between television sexual content and teen pregnancy still remained. (Landau E, 2008, November 03) In another survey published in Paediatrics more than 1,000 public middle school students in North Carolina were surveyed at the ages of 12-14 years old and were surveyed again two years later at the ages of 14-16 years old. They measured the students exposure to sexual content in television, movies, music and magazines and were divided into five equal-sized groups ranging from the lowest exposure to the highest exposure. The research showed that white teenagers even after taking into account other factors known to reduce the likelihood of teen sex, like parental disapproval of sex at that age and getting good grades, still increased. In fact each increase in grouping of sexual media exposure increased the likelihood of them being involved in teen sex by

Negative effects of Mass Media for teenagers,  The exposure of sex images and excessive portraits of violence in movies and dramas have instilled negative thoughts and taboos in the mind of these teenagers for they have been consistently getting increased exposure to things which are not suitable for their age.