Posted on 08/17/2012 10:25:19 AM PDT by Kaslin
Culture Challenge of the Week: Movies "Selling" Sex to Children
Can you name the last five movies your teenage son or daughter has watched with friends? How strong was the sexual content in those movies?
And does it really matter?
New research suggests that it does. The study, conducted by Dr. Ross O'Hara and soon to be published in the journal Psychological Science, found that promiscuity on-screen promotes promiscuity in real life. "Adolescents who are exposed to more sexual content in movies start having sex at younger ages, have more sexual partners," and engage in riskier sexual activities says Dr. O'Hara.
While at Dartmouth University, Dr. O'Hara (now a researcher at the University of Missouri) and his team analyzed the movie-watching patterns of about 1,200 young teens, ages 12-14. Researchers next analyzed the teens' sexual behavior six years later, considering the age at which they became sexually active, their number of partners, and the riskiness of their sexual activity, including whether or not they used contraceptives.
The result: bad news. Young teens who viewed movies with sexual content were profoundly influenced by what they watched. They initiated sexual behavior earlier than their peers who viewed less sexual content, and tended to imitate the on-screen sexual behaviors they saw-which included casual sex, multiple partners, and high-risk behaviors.
It's not surprising, really. Teens crave information about sex--and too often turn to the media for information. Moreover, adolescent hormones operate in overdrive and teens are naturally more sensitive to sexual stimulation. Less likely to delay gratification, teens are more likely to be impulsive and think themselves impervious to harm. The combination, researchers say, means that "sensation seeking, or the tendency to seek more novel and intense sexual stimulation" increases in teens who "watched more movies with sexually explicit content."
So what should parents do?
How to save your Family: Select Movies with Your Children
Dr. O'Hara sums it up well, saying, "This study, and its confluence with other work, strongly suggests that parents need to restrict their children from seeing sexual content in movies at young ages."
Agreed. But unfortunately, the solution is not as simple as checking a movie's rating. In fact, G-rated movies are part of the problem. The O'Hara study also analyzed the sexual content in 700 films, all top-grossing films from 1998-2004. Defining "sexual content" as anything from heavy kissing to actual sex scenes, researchers found sexual content in more than a third of the G-rated movies, more than half of PG-rated films, and four out of every five R-rated movies.
Short of prohibiting movies all together-an unwise and unworkable solution--there are some things a parent can do. First, use websites that provide specific information about movie content, rather than a reviewer's judgment about an appropriate viewing age.
Websites like Pluggedin.com and Movieguide provide not only specifics about movie content but also analysis from a Christian perspective. (PluggedIn offers reviews of music and gaming products as well.) Two straightforward secular sources are Screenit and Kids-in-mind-both provide valuable descriptions of specific movie content, including sexuality, violence, and language. One caution-a few websites, such as CommonSense Media, offer age-ratings to help guide parents. But organizations which lean left, as CommonSense Media does, or are tied in tightly with entertainment industry folks, can't be relied on by parents who want to raise children with traditional values. The Parent's Television Council at www.ParentsTV.org is an excellent resource for information on the content of popular TV shows and offers great movie reviews.
Second, talk with your children about sex. While sex won't be a casual dinnertime conversation topic, you need to create private time with your teens to explore their feelings and questions about sex. If we're silent, our teens will learn about sex from friends and the movies-a route that's sure to normalize sexual risk-taking.
Third, stay in the loop. Talk with other parents and get to know your teen's friends. Realize that at some point your child probably will see something too sexually explicit, whether at a friend's house or on a computer. Keep the conversations going and remind your teens that Hollywood is a world without consequences.
Yes it was only a few years in between the DVD show and the Mary Tyler Moore show but the change in her appearance was stark.
” “I think you’re some kind of deviated prevert. I think General Ripper found out about your preversion, and that you were organizing some kind of mutiny of preverts. Now MOVE!”
Keenan Wynn’s finest moment in cinema : )
” Yes it was only a few years in between the DVD show and the Mary Tyler Moore show but the change in her appearance was stark.”
Mary said she was a heavy drinker (wine) during that period. Also diabetes.
It's great supervise to your kids but when you jump in front of the TV you are waiving the forbidden fruit in front of them making them more curious about it. It's a tricky situation to handle. You want to make sure they understand the consequences of sex.
I remember a kid whose parents would allow them to eat candy so whenever she went to a friends house she would stuff herself with ituntil full being that it was a rare experience.
How can you joke about this serious issue? Your joking about it shows us that likely :
there is no hope for you and likely the Republic(see #148)
And you thought that the re-election of Obama was the problem.
My kids are in the Theology of the Body classes for middle school and high school. They are learning how to build healthy relationships. They sure as heck aren’t going to learn it from anything on TV. I think I’ll risk blocking the TV instead of having the images of unhealthy relationships that can’t be unseen stuck in their heads forever. Thanks, though.
That is what that blocking function is in the converter box for. My comment was regarding playing those movies for the kids and then jumping in front of the TV to block their view. Better off just blocking certain channels.
I got a few months of free Cinamax and at night they play the most meaningless softcore sexually themed movies with no real plots, and not even real actors (more like models). I cant imagine who watches such crap.
That is what the cable blocking function is for, better yet, dont pay for premium cable channels.
You are hovering/helicopter parent....Jeesh... you son is 14 ...you are not allowing/teaching him to be an adult when you go with him to his friends house.
Why on earth would I cut the cord to a 14 year old and let him “learn to be an adult”?/watch porn
What I meant was allow your kids to grow up w/o you watching their every move...let them make some mistakes and learn from it...if you are teaching them decent morals they won't go too far of the path. Let them figure it out on their own.
..............and where did I say young kids watching porn was a part of being and adult and growing up..because I didn't.
He can learn to be an adult by doing a man’s work around the house and yard.
Kids doing work around the house and leading in prayer does not make them adults...sorry. Maybe gives them a work ethic.
Samiam1972, By watching your kids every move and not allowing them to watch TV and making decisions on their behalf instead of them doing it on their own YOU are not teaching them to be responsible..you are doing it for them..What you are doing is showing you kids a "craft" and then making the craft for them instead of letting your kids get their hands in there and doing it themselves...Think about it..
BTW I was one of the kids from a super strict home and I was one of those who rebeled....I know more about this than you do.
..and the same kids from super strict households do the same in college/once they leave home with drugs, alchohol and sex....EVERYONE here has seen it with the kids of pastors/preachers..they were the wildest ones in HS.
We don’t have cable. We use Netflix. I’m just not going to pay for garbage we don’t need to be watching. My kids get to see the latest movies but don’t see any reason to show them sexually explicit scenes that aren’t part of a healthy, married relationship. We are religious people. I don’t want any of my boys or my husband, for that matter, to develop an unhealthy, unrealistic idea about women and relationships.
trailhkr1, I appreciate your concern for MY children and how they are raised. You do not have ANY idea about my kids or their situation. I talk to my kids all the time when we see other kids/adults making stupid choices. If they notice first, we discuss it. Sometimes I point things out to get their reaction. They are not stupid.
Having a strong work ethic and being responsible for other human beings does not make him an adult but gives him a strong foundation as he gets older. It certainly gives him a better chance than if I let him play video games in his room all day long and then suddenly expect him to know how to care for himself when he does leave home.
I seriously cannot believe you are giving me, a mother of six children, parenting advice just because you did not respect your parents when you finally left home and chose to be a child instead of an adult. Not all kids do that. Believe it or not, I was once a child/adult away from home. Rebelling didn’t interest me. I was smarter than that and found most of the things my roommates were doing to be pretty silly, childish, and without purpose. Most led down roads I had no desire to follow.
I go with my kids to most play dates because I like the moms and we hang out when the kids play. We don’t live in a normal neighborhood and there aren’t any kids around for my kids to just run over to someone’s house. There are too many kids in this house for me to hover and watch their every movement and I don’t want them out roaming the streets without purpose. My oldest son goes camping with the Boy Scouts every month because I trust him and the families in our group. Another bunch of sheltered homeschool kids. Oh, the horror!!!!
I control what I can and pray for God’s grace for the rest. Again, please look me up when you have teenagers and let me know how it goes for you and how giving them access to things that are meant for adults is some great idea. I would love to hear how your kids turn out.
This reminds me of my childhood. When I was a kid my dad liked R rated movies that were crime/action based themes that had violence and some nudity. Mom couldn't stand those films, in fact she loved Roger's and Hammerstein Musicals GAG and comedies.
So when I was about 13 or so Dad started taking me with him, in fact at that age those were the movies I was dying to see. Sometimes it was a drive-in and there was no telling what the 2nd and 3rd features were.
When I was 17 yrs old cable finally reached my neighborhood and my dad got us HBO to avoid those movie ticket prices. My youngest sister was about 7 then.
Funny thing is, both my sisters claim (as do their husbands) that they saved themselves for their husbands, even after us getting HBO and being able to watch R movies. (and yes, it was on all the TVs)
I still look back fondly to those days. Every-so often one of those movies turns up on cable and I think of those times with him.
Lesson 1 we learned : TV is not real.
but Santa is, and he lives in DC...
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