Negative Effects On Teenagers

Television largely remains the same when it comes to displaying adult oriented content today. Postman’s claim with television is relevant with contemporary society today because of the amount of exposure that children have with adult media. The Internet today is an even greater gateway into the adult media for children because of the amount of websites that display such content like pornography, online predators, and the exposure to the uses of drugs and alcohol. Studies show that the exposure of such content is mentally scarring to some children, which can lead to trouble in later life. The exposure of such material is exactly what Postman claims to be the corrupter of childhood and

Owens, E. W., Behun, J. R., Manning, C. J., & Reid, C. R. (2012). The Impact of Internet Pornography on Adolescents: A Review of the Research. Sexual Addiction and Compulsivity, 19(4). 99-122. DOI: 10.1080/10720162.2012.660431

Greenfield goes on to explain that open communication within a family can help hinder the negative effects of sexualized media on children (746). This is imperative because research has also shown that individuals who were raised in families that did not talk about sex (because it was considered inappropriate), may be more vulnerable to the effects of sexualized media compared to those who were raised in homes where sex was frequently conversated about (Greenfield, 747).

Is the hypersexualization of childhood truly detrimental to children and society? In the world today, children continue to passionately desire an older look at a younger age. Girls are taught to show skin and pose in sexual manners through the representation of women in media. They are also taught to use their bodies for the pleasure of men. In a similar way, the media shows boys that it is acceptable to utilize the body of a women as an object for his own enjoyment. Due to these frequent overly sexualized images in the media, children are taught from a young age to have a high tolerance for sexual images. In fact, around 80% of young boys access porn. Additionally, many young girls feel comfortable taking pictures of themselves in scanty clothes doing sexual poses due to this tolerance and a desire to stand out in a society where sexual imagery is common (Sext Up Kids). The oversexualization of childhood through sexualized products marketed to youth, the example set by young celebrities trying to transfer into adulthood, and the portrayal of characters in children’s films has negatively impacted the psychological characters of children and all people in society.

A boy of 12 who raped a nine-year-old girl after watching hard-core pornography online was spared jail yesterday as his lawyer warned of a generation of children growing up with a ‘skewed view’ on sex. The schoolboy, who is now 14, told police he had raped the little girl because he wanted to ‘feel grown up’ after watching porn online. … He then ‘emulated’ the graphic footage and attacked a neighbour’s daughter, the High Court in Edinburgh heard.(Camber, 2012)

In United States, sexual media imagery is widely available for the adolescents. It ranges from television shows, commercials, magazines, web sites and lyrics of the latest popular song. This is extremely disturbing when majority of the adolescents are not emotionally prepared to handle any sexual related experiences.

Sexual behavior and activity is a normal part of life. Most people believe that there is a certain age that is appropriate to begin being involved in such activities and behaviors. Within society today and more so with the younger generations media is playing a major role in the lives of adolescents. What is seen on television, in movies, and on video games by adolescents is often imitated. This article discusses the topic of sexual content in the media and its effect on sexual behavior in adolescents.

It becomes even more difficult to form boundaries around things like sex or the sexualisation in this era, where sex is seen everywhere by these young audiences. As such the “understanding of childhood change[s] the cultural and legal fields as [the] conservative forces push for expanded definitions of childhood and increasing restrictions on children, while capitalist marketing sexualizes consumption practices” (Kleinhans 1) therefore there is this area of inactivity, where society does not know how to address teens engaging in sexual activities that are illegal by current standards. Thus, the inability to comprehend teens sexualisation and experimentation in a technologically advanced era, creates an inconsistency between laws and the understanding of them. To truly deal with the advancing child pornography scene, laws need to be

Alexy, Burgess, and Prentky investigate a potential association between sexually aggressive behavior in minors and their exposure to and use of pornographic material. The authors use other extensive research, from other expert psychologists in the field of sexual behavior, as the foundation that inspired the study they are presenting. The authors demonstrate how older subjects involved in pedophilia, rape, and harassment, among other sexual aggressive behaviors, have had a strong connection with pornography early in their youth. Alexy, Burgess, and Prentky use this staggering information to support their position that pornography is a risk marker to sexual aggression, in children and adolescents in their current state and in the long term.

Children are facing these issues on a day to day biases. Girls go to the mall and pick out clothing with the words "flirt", "juicy", even "gangbanger" or open magazines to read about how to get a boyfriend in 4 easy steps. Adults may see this and understand the harm but children, or even teenagers may not fully understand. We see the playboy logo, they may see a cute bunny. How do we balance their innocence with our sexual knowledge? Is it fair to them for us to shatter their innocence? With our rapidly accelerating technology will the youth reach new media before their parents can explain it to them?

Adolescence is the period of physical and psychological development that generally occurs between the periods of puberty to legal adulthood. For most kids, adolescence is the most difficult point of their lives because of all the insecurities and emotional outbursts. Adolescents are heavily focused on fitting in and finding their identity. This often leads to risky behavior and conforming to peer pressure. Kids are also influenced to behave certain ways because they believe everyone is constantly watching them. This idea is called an imaginary audience. This essay will focus on the effects of an imaginary audience and the egocentric adolescent.

Does not having a close relationship with parent’s during teenage years affect adulthood? ONE! HUNDRED! DEMONS! By Lynda Barry, in her comic novel where she manifests throughout her life she is going through different types of demons. The demons she speaks about are generally about her emotions, and what she is going through throughout her teenage years. A lot of the demons she is dealing with is because it has to do with the lack of relationship she has with her mother. Lynda’s mother was never affectionate towards her, every time Lynda tried to open up to her mother, her mother would respond in a rude way and shut Lynda out. This made Lynda feel like her mom did not care about what she had to say, she felt unwanted, she had no one else to talk to because Lynda was known to be an antisocial girl, she had no friends at school and no one else to turn to. During a teenager’s years is when they need the most attention and support from an adult meaning parent or parents. In most cases when the teenager is not being acknowledged and feels misunderstood, they seek the wrong alternative in order to get the attention they want and need. When a teenager does not have a close relationship with their parents or parent, it does affect the teenager in their future adulthood.

Living in a highly sexualized society, children today don’t have to go far to find inappropriate acts, images, and videos on the web and other social media platforms. As a matter of fact, children today have a harder time avoiding sexual acts than their parents did when they were younger.

Since birth human behaviour is influenced by what the individual sees and there surroundings, this influence is greatest at a young age and fades as the individual grows in age, but never completely goes away. In today’s society where sex is something that is openly broadcasted in order to promote everything from products to television shows, sex is something that the youth of today are exposed to from an early age. But what effects can this exposure at such a vulnerable stage in life cause? Early exposure to sexual content can increase the likeliness of youth participating in sexual activity by the large amount that they are exposed too, the glorification of sex, the lack of regulation of sexual content in the media by the government, and

Pornography has strong influences over its viewers. Recent research has been done in attempt to find the link between sexually explicit material and how exposure to it has caused changes in a person’s aggression level toward women, and one’s cognitive development of sexual and social standards and expectations. The findings are grounds for advising trying to regulate the accessibility of pornography to minors to avoid these potentially harmful influences. Although, during adolescence, usually centered between the ages of 13 and 19, sexual curiosity is expected, compulsive curiosity to sexual material that is not most realistic in nature can cause unrealistic views of women and sex roles. These impacts are happening in the plastic minds of 13 and 19-year-old web surfers who are unaware of the effects taking place. Child pornography is a form of child sexual abuse. Federal law defines child pornography as any visual depiction of sexually explicit conduct involving a minor less than 18 years old. Progressively, child pornography laws are being used to punish the utilization of computer technology and the Internet to get, share, and appropriate pornographic material including kids, including pictures and movies. Having a violation of federal child pornography laws is a serious crime and first time offenders found guilty of producing child