The media is not to blame for sexualising teenagers, according to study
which shows young people are more influenced by factors inside the home.
Young people seek out racy programmes and magazines to satisfy
pre-existing appetites, which are determined in large part by how they
are brought up.
While campaigners have long blamed the media for forcing sexualised
imagery on children and teens, the study found that those teenagers with
an interest actively seek it out.
Psychologist Laurence Steinberg, from Temple University,
Philadelphia, analysed data from 2006 claiming that children between the
ages of 12 and 14 who consumed a large amount of sexualised media
including films, television, music and magazines were more likely to
have sex by age 16.
Various aspects of the teenagers' lives were studied, including
school performance, religiousness, parental relationships, and
perceptions of friends' attitudes about sex.
Dr Steinberg claims his findings, published in the online journal
Developmental Psychology, gives the mass media a strong defence over
accusations of sexualising young children.
It may look like media exposure leads to sexual activity, but the
relation between the two is artificial, he said: If a child
reports being very religious, he or she will be less likely to have sex
at a younger age, but will also be less likely to consume sexualised
media. Instead of pointing a collective finger at the entertainment
industry, the most important influences on adolescents' sexual behaviour
are probably closer to home.
However, Vivienne Pattison of Mediawatch-UK unscientifically
overruled the findings: The findings of these surveys tend to be very
contradictory. It is very hard for anyone to avoid being exposed to
sexual material these days. On my way to work this morning I went past a
billboard with a semi-naked woman on it, even thought it had nothing to
do with what it was advertising.
Exposure to sexually explicit media at a young age can lead to a
range of problems, including low self-esteem, eating disorders and
sexually transmitted diseases. While these problems are difficult for
teenagers to cope with, we are particularly concerned by their impact on
young children, who are becoming increasingly sexualised by the miasma
of explicit material that they are surrounded by.
Channel
4 is creating a reality show that will see two people, one attractive and the
other physically disfigured, share a house.
More
than half of older viewers believe television has deteriorated in the past year
because of the soaring number of repeats, bad language and violence.
