Projection.

Ann Althouse links to this with the line, "Sex on TV is getting teenagers pregnant." (Time-saving public service announcement: The comments there already contain the obligatory jokes about not falling off, especially with the new flat-screen models.)

Here's the WaPo story.

…[T]he new research is the first to show an association between TV watching and
pregnancy among teens….

Among the 718 youths who reported being sexually active during the study, the likelihood of getting pregnant or getting someone else pregnant increased steadily with the amount of sexual content they watched on TV, the researchers found.

About 25 percent of those who watched the most were involved in a pregnancy, compared with about 12 percent of those who watched the least.

The researchers took into account other factors such as having only one parent, wanting to have a baby and engaging in other risky behaviors.

Predictably, some people think the study shows we need more abstinence education and other people think the study shows we need more contraception education or contraception-plus-delay-of-sex education.

…"We have a highly sexualized culture that glamorizes sex," said Valerie Huber of the National Abstinence Education Association. "We really need to encourage schools to make abstinence-centered programs a priority."…

…"This finding underscores the importance of evidence-based sex education that helps young people delay sex and use prevention when they become sexually active," said James Wagoner of Advocates for Youth.

Would it be naive and oversimplifying to suggest that the study "underscores the importance" of restricting children and teens from watching a lot of sex on TV? I'm just sayin'.

I found it interesting that the WaPo quoted the researchers as recommending that parents "spend more time monitoring what their children watch and discussing what they see." Isn't it remarkable that there is that assumption there that the parents are completely passive in allowing the children to watch whatever they want? An assumption that children should decide what they should watch, and parents' role is only being aware of the children's choices ("monitoring") and reacting to them ("discussing")?

No suggestion whatsoever that parents should, or can, influence what their children watch. Not even (ha! maybe especially not even) merely by modeling appropriate TV consumption.

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One response to “Projection.”

Kelly

November 3, 2008

I’ve watched a few episodes of Gossip Girl in the middle of the night with pregnancy insomnia, and I was surprised at how much Sex in the City is trickling down. This is a show on prime time, geared for teenagers, and it completely glorifies promiscuity and drug use.
I used to watch teen shows like 90210 when I was a teenager, but they always had the kids on drugs as being the bad kids, and it was still assumed that you would go out on a few dates before you start to have sex. Clearly, that is now the old fashioned morality.
These days the cool kids take pills with their whiskey before hiring prostitutes with their best friend.

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