sex and the media

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Recommended: Medias negative influence on body image

In today’s media it is almost impossible to find a show that does not contain some sort of explicit sexual material. Over 70% of television shows include some sort of sexual content (http://lubbockonline.com/stories/111005/nat_111005043.shtml). Adolescents are starting to engage in sexual activities at earlier ages and they do not understand that the media does not accurately portray the risks and dangers associated with having sex. With this adolescents are also becoming more interested and curious to learn about sex and their bodies. The rise of access to the internet and ease of access to pornographic videos at home has been linked to the decline in sexual crimes (http://mises.org/daily/3080). With all of the positives and negative linked to sex and the media it is extremely hard to decide whether it is good or bad for society.
Kids are beginning to engage in sexual activities at earlier ages with the average male losing his virginity at 16.9 years and the average female slightly later at 17.4 years (http://www.nbcnews.com/id/37853719/ns/health-sexual_health/t/surprising-sex-statistics/#.U08yc_mwLYg). This number has been slowly declining throughout the years. Most people, especially adolescents, do not understand that the media does not accurately portray sex. The majority of sex shown on TV is between two unmarried people who have no true fear or knowledge of the potential dangers of sex. The risks of sexually transmitted infections (sti’s) are almost never mentioned along with the use of a condom on any TV show. If a character is, or becomes pregnant television again fails to show the extremity of the situation. Adolescents viewing these shows do not understand that what is shown are not real life situations. The...

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...s pro’s and con’s when analyzed and which side is greater all depends on how it is looked at. A large amount of issues caused by the media concerning adolescents could be prevented if the parents stepped in sooner and kept an eye on what their children were viewing and how they were interpreting the content. At the same time if sexual content did not exist in the media neither would the problems that arise from it. The ease of access to pornographic videos and images has been linked to lowering the amount of sexual crimes committed. This may not have been the ideal way to solve the terrible problem that is rape but it is proven to work and the crimes are decreasing as the internet and pornography industry develops. Ergo, one cannot simply say that sexual content in the media is a good or bad thing without exploring all of the pro’s and con’s associated with it.

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