TUESDAY, Aug. 31 (HealthDay News) — The nation’s leading group
of pediatricians has issued a strong policy statement directed toward
pediatricians, parents and the media on the danger of messages American
teens and children are getting about sex from television, the Internet and
other media outlets.
The statement, Sexuality, Contraception, and the Media, was
published online Aug. 30 and in the September print issue of the journal
Pediatrics.
“The media represents arguably the leading sex educator in America
today,” said Dr. Victor Strasburger, the lead author of the paper. “We do
such a poor job of educating kids about sex in sex education classes in
school, and parents are notoriously shy about talking to kids about sex.
The media picks up the slack.”
Seventy percent of teen shows contain sexual content, Strasburger
added, “and less than 10 percent of that content involves what anyone
would classify as being responsible content. There’s no mention of
contracting an STD [sexually transmitted disease] or the need to wait to
have sex until later.”
The United States leads the western world in teen pregnancy rates and
American teens have an alarmingly high rate of STDs — one in four
children.
Meanwhile, U.S. children spend seven hours and more a day with various
types of often-sexually explicit media, including music, movies,
television shows, magazines and the Internet.
“The research shows us that the portrayal of sex in the media is really
unrealistic. It’s unhealthy. It doesn’t consider the consequences of
sexual behavior,” said Alan Delamater, professor and director of child
psychology at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. “This is
what our kids are growing up thinking. This is what sex is about. To deny
its impact is ignorant because there’s so much knowledge of it at this
point.”
Many pediatricians would like to flip the equation and see media
outlets introduce more responsible programming.
“Media has an opportunity to continue doing the same old thing, which
is to have an adverse effect on child development, or turn it around and
shape attitudes and behavior that could have a positive effect on child
development,” Delamater said.
The statement contains a number of recommendations for parents,
physicians and the media.
“We want physicians to ask two media questions at every well-child
visit: how much entertainment screen time per day does the child engage
in, and is there a TV set or Internet connection in his or her bedroom,”
said Strasburger, professor of pediatrics at the University of New Mexico
School of Medicine. “That takes 20 seconds and may be more important than
asking about childproofing or car seats or bicycle helmets.”
The authors of the statement ideally would like ads for erectile
dysfunction drugs to not be shown on TV until after 10 p.m.
“Half a billion dollars of ads for erectile dysfunction drugs and
virtually no ads for birth control pills or condoms or emergency
contraception,” Strasburger said. “There’s not a single shred of evidence
that exposing kids to birth control ads or even making birth control
available to them makes them sexually active at a younger age. We’re doing
things completely backwards.”
There should also be more attention paid to how kids use social
networking sites on the Internet. And parents can use media story lines as
teaching tools to discuss sex with their children, instead of having “the
big talk,” the statement said.
On the more idealistic side, the statement also recommends that
advertisers no longer use sex to sell a wide range of products.
“We want parents to realize that kids are spending more time with media
than in any other activity but sleeping, and that the media represents a
powerful source of information and in this case a powerful sex educator,”
Strasburger said.
More information
To learn more about children and the media, visit the American
Academy of Pediatrics.