by Bill Fancher and Allie Martin
(AgapePress) – One researcher's studies indicate the frequency and context of sexually explicit material portrayed on the small screen is sending negative messages to young viewers.
Dr. Robert Lichter, president of the Center for Media and Public Affairs, recently took part in a Senate forum on the impact of explicit sexual material on children. He addressed the occurrence of such material, beginning with network broadcast television.
“You get about one sexually oriented scene every four minutes on basic cable,” Lichter says. [On premium cable] once every 90 seconds, [on] music videos … once every 40 seconds, [and on] movies, less so.” He said sexual scenes occur every seven or eight minutes in movies.
Through his years of researching the presentation of sexual material in the entertainment industry, Lichter has concluded that the method in which the material is handled is crucial to its effect on the vast majority of those who view it.
“The context in which sex is portrayed is extremely important,” he said. “From Love's Labors Lost to Shakespeare In Love, how sexual programming fits into a larger narrative can be the key to how it affects opinion, attitude, and behavior,” he said.
According to Lichter's research, between 85% and 90% of sexual material in the media sends negative messages to kids who view it. Those negative messages include that there are no physical consequences (98% of the time) or emotional consequences (85%) to sex acts.
Dating Behaviors
Young girls may be bearing the brunt of some of the negative influence to which Lichter alludes. A new report says that 20% of adolescent girls have been the victim of abuse in a dating relationship. The study was conducted by Dr. Jay Silverman, an assistant professor of health and social behavior at the Harvard School of Public Health.
The New York Times reports Silverman's study found that the violence experienced by the teenage girls is often associated with serious health problems, including drug abuse, unhealthy weight control practices, risky sexual behavior, teen pregnancy, and suicide attempts. Of the high school girls (ages 14-18) surveyed for the study, about 20% reported that they had been hit, slapped, shoved, or forced into sexual activity by a dating partner. A recent national survey showed that 25% of adult women reported being the victims of violence by a romantic partner.
The study is the most comprehensive to look at dating violence among adolescents, and the first to ask teenagers if they had ever been victims of violence on a date.
(This update courtesy of Agape Press.)