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.
What do you do regarding music?
I keep throwing my personal interests around, but try picking up Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card if you haven't already.
I can no longer watch sit-comes nor broadcast TV shows. There are few TV shows that I can stand.
One show I really loved, it had some violence and sexual references in it, but was really well done was Showtime’s : The Tutor.
It was 4 seasons representing historical drama Henry VIII(8)s adult life. It was done with great scripts, acting and some interesting characters. The visuals were fantastic
This was very rare, It was the music and scenery/visuals in the show opening that lured me in
Hmm that actually looks interesting. :)
Before WW 2, and for all I know, still today, little pocket size porno comic books used to be sold with condoms. When I was 12, one of these got circulated among the 7th grade boys at my school. I still remember the profound shock I got from reading this thing. It was a crude parody of a popular daily comic strip; the first piece of porno I had ever seen. I can’t imagine how much greater the effect of current TV would be on similar age boys, although I suppose schools now give them more of an introduction than we got back then.
Frankly, when there is no envelope to push, all of this stuff just gets boring.
I assume you mean “The Tudors,” as opposed to something to do with preparing for the SAT ... although that might be an amusing reality show.
I saw part of one episode when my husband put it on Netflix, said, “I’m not watching this filth,” and went to bed with a cat.
Yeah, but being mentally ill as theyare, he’d probably LIKE the hatchet thingy...
Ya’s never knows...ya’s just never does..
Exactly, and the problem is, it has moved the *norm* over. It’s normal and *ok* now to have a baby (or at least be pregnant) before you get married, for instance. If you even bother to get married. Remember the big flap when Murphy Brown did that and they said, “Oh come ON people will not emulate that just because it’s on TV”. Riiiiiiiight.
Can’t even remember the last TV series I’ve watched regularly. I just don’t have the patience to invest time in a show.
I don’t remember that rating system, but I do remember that I was not allowed to see anything rated R until I was an adult and was married! I’m not even sure I often got to see things that were GP.
I was not using it in a derogatory sense. Just saw way too many kids from ultra strict families go totally crazy in college....drugs, drinking, excess slootiness etc and I know I am not the only one to have seen this. I am not referring to the families who raised their kids right-good sense of values and morals and let them be responsible for their actions and gave them a long enough cord to learn on their own. without constantly choking them back in.
I was referring to the families who did not allow their kids to watch TV-or very minimal TV, the ones with very strict clothing issues, controlled excessively what music they heard, what literature was allowed in the house..basically controlled their kids so much the kids could not be kids and discover on their own.
See my post #53.
A lot of people do not subscribe to anything like Christian sexual morality. Many people, including parents, do not care if their teenagers have sex, as long as they avoid childbirth or a fatal disease.
People who have different moral standards have no reason to support ours. Rather, they could wish to discourage us, since they believe our values are false and our standards foolish.
That’s the exact plot of Footloose!
Never seen it.
People forget that a few years later, Candice Bergen basically admitted that Dan Quayle was right.
Don't go to the theaters to begin with. It's too expensive, too much trouble, and enriches the Hollywood libs. Stay at home and watch TCM or watch DVD's of movies you know are good. Or try to find some good movies online. There are still a few up (though not nearly as much as there used to be, consarn it).
For a long time the culture held up with the glue anyway, even tho not everyone was overtly Christian. It was a pretty good way to live (and if you did otherwise you kept it more or less to yourself). Now the glue is gone and everything is falling apart.
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