Study links teen pregnancy to sexy TV shows

true, parents need to work on their parenting. BUT, studies do indicate that the media is focusing on children like never before, AND that the media is targeting the sexuality of children earlier than they ever have before. these two things compounded do not help children at all, especially children who are neglected to some degree by their parents. It is not causational, obviously, but there are clear consequences of increased marketing to children and targeting their sexuality earlier and earlier. its our job as people to teach children to look through the bullshit of the media as mentors, coworkers, relatives, etc if their parents are failing!

As much as these shows are racy and sexually loaded we cannot blame the shows themselves. It is the parents/guardians of these youth to pay attention to what their children are watching. Parents should raise their children and not their televisions.

Exactly why I don't really like getting into any other tv channel, except current. ;)

TV literally, rots the brain from the inside out, especailly the commericals....reality tv, cartoon tv, media, and sexy tv shows are all guilty.

Can they link teen pregnancy to news stories with pictures of bikini'd babes?

if anything sexy tv shows have influenced me to enjoy my young life and keep babies out of the picture!!

Oh yeah. Abstinence only education has nothing to do with it.

this is ridiculous. i shouldn't even waste my time commenting on this story. i'm just shocked that its gotten so much traction in the media...i heard about it on npr this morning too.

So what you're saying is TV not only makes you horny but also makes you stupid enough to forget about birth control?

They should do a study that tests if kids exposed to idiot parents that let their children get all the info from TV instead of talking to them causes them to do stupid stuff. I'm thinking there's a direct correlation.

*cough* bullshit *cough*

Don't blame entertainment for lack of parenting...

those bathing suits are hot.
x_x

which is it- does life imitate art? or art imitate life?

i'd rather ppl just ignore shows like the hills not because of their supposed overt sexualities, but because of their blatant overt fakeries (yes, i pluralized fakery). ESPECIALLY the hills - marketed as real when it's been proven to be a construct, for shame!

This is a tremendously oversimplistic view into the cause of teen pregnancies, as it hasn't even been suggested that the watching of these shows may be the product of todays youth's increased sexuality, or maybe the type of people who watch these programs just are more likely to be more overtly sexual and/or become pregnant at an early age.

Personally i think governments should stop worrying about small/irrelevant issues like this and start to look into some of this finanical depression business ive been hearing so much about...

I completely disagree. Sexy shows such as the hills don't mention anything about sex. Sure one might go on to assume their actions or feel that they're implied but the show never talks about sex.

Second of all, education is out there and whether or not someone chose to be sexually active they could still choose to act wisely and go on birth control or use other methods to prevent pregnancy.

Sexy shows have been on TV for decades. I would believe this causation a little more if shows had suddenly been popping up more recently but theyve been their all along. Before the Hills started airing three years ago we'd seen nearly 20 years of the Real World and other shows like Dawson's Creek and 90210. If you honestly think that sexy shows are on the rise then you have been oblivious the last 30 years.

Television and video games are probably influential on some teenagers, but this is where PARENTING comes in, like several people said. It's not up to writers or television producers or the government to stop your kids from watching inappropriate things.

Meanwhile, I'm watching Dexter (on demand) right NOW, and have no intention of killing someone later.

At the end it depends on the individual. I remember seeing a bunch high sexual, violent content movies/shows and I did not become a teen mom. So really, if the kid is messed up before this type of influence then it would be most likely they will be more sexually active or agressive.

I knew that O.C. show was no good.

well , I just want to remind everybody about and old man call (Edward Bernay) the father of public relation. He was the nephew of Sigmund Freud , this man came to America and he was hired by the corporations to created techniques on how to brainwash the american people and he did. Today everything you see on tv is with the purpose of manipulating your life the way the corporations want it.
I wonder, why people dont ask themselves , who benefits from all this crap that we see on tv.
America please! be original , do not follow the step of other peoples life,create your own story and turn off the freaking TV is garbage for your brain.
Remember the old saying ; if you watch crap you will talk crap and you will think crap.

Cest la vie , Mon ami.

Umm this is a LONG over due look at TV's influence on behavior. Maybe they should look at the VIOLENCE content of TV as well?

I don't think it influences ADULTS as much however...

that picture alone almost made me become pregnant...

I agree tv is an influence, and it is up to the parents ultimatley to make sure their kids are not watching smut....period. Using the girls from the hills as an example, a fourteen year old has no business watching. First of all the women on that show (using term loosley) are of an age that is acceptable to be having sex. The target audience for that show is largley made up of 14-18 year olds.
There are so many good reasons to keep this kind of crap out of your house. One major reason is that none of it is based in reality, if a girl from the hills gets knocked up she will be having a baby shower at the Beverly hills hotel.....not at Aunt Gerts trailer. If you are a stupid parent and you let your kids watch crap it is your negligence. You can enjoy being a parent all over again. Talk with your kids, be honest with your kids. They are going to have sex, they are going to lie to you. If you give them every outlet to make smart choices, they will. If you want to turn a blind eye and let the tv, and our gross media raise them, it will. If you don't teach them to be decent, trust me no one will.

No one is fooled by this "finding".

If you're parents let you watch shows that feature sex as its main content, then you're parents are probably leaving you at home for the weekend to hang out with your boyfriend.

It's also hard to raise kids when you've got to work so hard (and so much) to give them a good life. On top of all that, they play >TV shows< that feature sex and violence in prime time.

This is our culture. We made it. I don't believe it makes us.

Western society is very impressionable. Everything from music to fashion to what we watch on TV has an influence so this shouldn't be a surprise to anyone.

I must say I became some what fasicnated with Ladies and I started watching German Nude Game Show Tutti Frutti on RTL when I was 8 Years old. Ah the good old days of German Television.

I wasn't a violent person until I played Call of Duty 4. There is something about the intro's. Flying in a Helicopter with Middle Eastern Music playing and seeing your comrads on the ground below traveling in there tanks getting ready to do some killing. You sit there with your heart beaten rapidly and hairs standing on your neck, and your thinking to yourselve "Bring It On Bitches"

What a game!

People don't pay attention to how powerful TV is.

It makes and breaks people. It can make people (reality TV, great commercials, great news shows on a political person) or break someone (a single lie can get around the world before the truth puts its pants on). And every single one of us have our part to play in that. Some might be smart enough to see through the BS, but most do not.

and that's what the article is about...the most that can't see through it and follow what they think is cool. You can blame all kinds of things, but TV is a major problem and to ignore that is to be just as ignorant as those who the study followed.

"The top 10th of adolescents who watched the most sexy programing were at double the risk of becoming pregnant or causing a pregnancy compared to the 10th who watched the fewest such programs"

NEWS FLASH!

Watching sexy programing causes pregnancy!

Talk about immaculate conception.

That's an old picture. They are due with my child in 5 weeks.

Makes sense to me. If all the kids on the poular shows are "doing it" then so will the kids who watch it. Twenty years ago this was not a problem as television was actually worth watching.

JIff
http://www.Ultimate-Anonymity.com

Just looking at one small factor in, what's overall is, a very large picture seems a bit narrow-sighted. How is it really possible to separate TV and not take into account the internet, music, social trends and even basic biology when coming up with theories such as this one?

All types of teens get pregnant. From the member of the honors society to the athlete to the loner.

And really...what shows are there to watch that appeal to this demographic that aren't "sexy"

Hmm...I wonder what my mom was watching when she got pregnant at 17? Damn Brady Bunch. Mike and Carol were always in bed together.

this is as lame as "Grand Theft Auto made me do it!", if your kids are sheep to begin with, you should have raised them to form their own opinions.

not follow the crowd "BAAHH!, BAAHH!"

mothers of america believe their children were born as angels and were corrupted by their environments, searching for something to blame, you find marilyn manson, celebrity deathmatch, and playboy.

the people that made these things you're blaming were once kids too, what fucked them up?

NO! I'm so shocked that there's a connection between kids having sex and shows featuring it

Whatever!

i dont think its causation but it is correlation.

those shows have shitty values, what can you say?

Have they found that teenagers who watch a lot of science fiction and cartoons are less likely to have sex?

It's all the way you interpret the data. They could just as easily say teens who are more sexually active tend to watch more sexy TV because it appeals to them. It all comes back to the question of whether TV is reflective or reflexive of reality.