Parents and peersto blame for teenagers having sex

Contrary to popular belief, the media doesn’t have a great influence on when young people start having sex or whether they engage in risky sex
Parents ‘should be encouraged to speak directly to children about sex’

Mail Online Reporter

Published:
07:44 EST, 8 July 2016

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Updated:
16:02 EST, 8 July 2016

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Movies, TV shows and websites showing erotic content don’t encourage teenagers to have sex, researchers have claimed.

A review of 22 studies found, contrary to popular belief, the media doesn’t have a great influence on the behaviour of young people – including when they start having sex and whether they engage in risky sex.

In fact, parents should be encouraged to speak directly to their children about sex, the researchers state.

And they and society should not shift the blame for young people’s sexual behavior on what teens supposedly see and read in the media about intimate encounters.

They say in a press release: ‘Parents and policy makers often raise the concern that so-called sexy media (media depicting or discussing sexual encounters) may promote sexual behavior among teenagers.

‘No conclusive evidence has however yet been provided about the matter by researchers.’

The trio concluded the media ‘neither contributes to the early initiation of sex among young people, nor to their sexual conduct more generally’.

Their results are published in the journal Psychiatric Quarterly.

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Commenting on the findings, Christopher Ferguson, co-chair of psychology of Stetson University, Florida, said: ‘Proclaiming a link between such so-called sexy media and the sexual behavior of young people is in fact premature.’

He, along with colleagues Patrick Markey at Villanova University and Rune Nielsen at IT University Copenhagen, analysed more than two dozen studies on the topic.

These took into he studies in total took into account the views of more than 22,000 participants younger than 18 years old.

Meanwhile all the studies measured the influence of some form of media on an outcome related to teenagers’ sexual behaviour, such as pregnancy, risky sexual behavior or the initiation of sex.

They found only a very weak link was found between the type of media that teenagers viewed and their eventual sexual behavior.

The media also played only a very minor role in the initiation of sex.

The researchers concede the possibility that so-called ‘sexy medi may still influence sexual attitudes, but say that this does not seem to carry over into actual behavior.

Parents must be encouraged to discuss sexuality with their teens and proper sex-education programs must be implemented in schools, the researchers state

‘Evidence for an association between media and sexual behavior is minimal,’ says Ferguson, who believes that parents and peers play a much greater role in how teenagers’ moral values around sexuality develops.

Despite increased availability of sex in the media, US government data suggests teens are waiting longer to have sex, and teen pregnancy rates are at historic lows.

The results do not exclude the possibility that media may have some influence on at-risk youth who are deprived of other socialization influences. ‘That is to say, when information from parents or schools are lacking, media may become the only source of information on sexuality,’ explains Ferguson.

He warns that simply making the media the scapegoat and giving it considerable public attention might distract parents and policy makers from more pressing and important issues related to teen sexuality.

According to him, parents must be encouraged to discuss sexuality with their teens and proper sex-education programs must be implemented in schools.

‘The encouraging message from our results is that the media is unlikely to thwart parental efforts to socialize children should parents take the initiative to talk directly to their children about sex,’ Ferguson adds.