johnnymk

N.C. teens drawn to sexually-charged music, magazines, movies and TV are about twice as likely to have intercourse by age 16 than those with less exposure.

A major study at UNC Chapel Hill, to be published this month in the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, tracked 1,017 teens from Durham, Orange and Granville counties over two years, surveying them on their sexual behavior and media use.

Each teen's "sexual media diet" was calculated based on the sexual content in 308 different TV shows, movies, songs and magazines the teens were regularly exposed to. Researchers found that sex content in teen media ranged from banter to depictions of sexual intercourse.

But the study found that parents who talk to teens about sex are generally more influential than media.

Teens whose parents communicated clearly that they did not want them to have sex were less likely to have had sexual intercourse by age 16 than those who perceived less disapproval of teen sex from parents.

Jane Brown, a professor in UNC's School of Journalism and Mass Communication and the study's principal investigator, said teens seem to turn to the media for sex information because they aren't getting the information elsewhere.

The study is part of a five-year project at UNC examining teens and media. Among the project's findings:

• Eleven percent of media used by early adolescents -- TV, movies, magazines and music -- contains sexual content.

• Forty percent of early adolescents' music contains sexual content. By genre, researchers say, 57 percent of R&B music (such as Destiny's Child and Janet Jackson), 48 percent of rap music (such as Snoop Dog and Ludacris) and 19 percent of heavy metal music (such as Incubus and Metallica) was catalogued as sexual.

• Less than one percent of teen media content focuses on sexual health, contraception and consequences.

• Black teens are more exposed to sexual media content than white teens.

• Television commercials are a major source of sexual content. Of major broadcast and cable networks used by teens, Comedy Central and MTV was among the leaders with highest sex content in commercials.

• Among shows popular among teens that indexed high for sexual content were UPN's "WWE Smackdown," and MTV's "Total Request Live."

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nickel

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InfiniteNothing

I'm tempted to say "duh". People who are more interested in sex are bound to be more interested in watching sexual based content.
Or in other words:

kgsilvas

Saw this report on the TV this a.m. Not a huge shock.

The upside was: But the study found that parents who talk to teens about sex are generally more influential than media. Teens whose parents communicated clearly that they did not want them to have sex were less likely to have had sexual intercourse by age 16 than those who perceived less disapproval of teen sex from parents.

That should be a greater incentive for more parents to have open and honest communication with their teens about sex.

InfiniteNothing

Yeah, but of kids who had sex despite their parents wishes, how many were safe? How many were in healthy relationships?

ialsohaveadream

If only there were some kind of link to this story....

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Thesifer

Wow. They win the Captain Obvious Award.

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MJordanash

Houdini

Then again, aren't most teenage kids, especially boys, "drawn to sexual content?"

ialsohaveadream

For some of us, it was even before we hit our teens.

welfareloser

some actually aren't. they're the ones i really worry about...

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ArkiStan

Children should not be acknowledged that they can get pregnant by sleeping in the same bed with someone until they are at least 16. I for one feel as if I lost my innocence for having found it out at such an early age.

welfareloser

seriously? i feel i have a healthy attitude toward sex due in large part to the fact that i knew early on how babies were made and it was never treated like a shameful, disgusting, wrong or mysterious thing.

i can remember before i knew how it all went down, older kids joking about sex freaked me out and made me feel uncomfortable... after i had it all figured out, i could just roll my eyes and walk away.

Houdini

Yeah, but you have to keep in mind where you live. In some areas of the country (cough, NEW ORLEANS, cough), if you don't have a baby by age 13 or 14, something is wrong with you. Lots of peer pressure. Plus you get a nice govt check each month for each kid. So the grandmothers take care of the kids, and the grandmothers are in their low to mid 30s. If your great, great (and sometimes add another great) grandmother is still living and driving, etc., there's something kinda wrong. And the guys brag about having lots of babies by different babymommas. They get off scott free. Perhaps get off was the wrong word. All joking aside, it's really sad, having worked in Peds ERs.

InfiniteNothing

I'm really curious about the loss of innocence. My sexual education and sexual experience was so gradual that it was seamless. I still feel like I haven't lost any innocence. Sex isn't really that different than playing tag when you think about it long enough.

nickel

sex isn't really that different than playing tag? seriously, what kind of tag do you play?

i know a way to play hide-n-go seek that might fit that bill, but tag?

InfiniteNothing

What do you do when you play tag? Run after someone,go, stop, chase, let someone else run after you, play, compete, strive, get revenge, have fun, tease, interact... etc

nickel

that ain't sex. sounds more like foreplay.

Ladogaboy

There is still some innocence there for you to take nickel!

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Houdini

And a big

InfiniteNothing

I guess so

Sirrich3

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