Sex and the Media
Most young people are in contact with some kind of media during most of their waking hours. Much of the media content they are exposed to contains messages, images, and ideas about sex and sexuality. This content is especially salient for adolescents and young adults who are developing their own sexual beliefs and behaviors.
The Media as Sex Educators
Research suggests that adolescents do learn about sexuality from the media, and some young people deliberately turn to the media for information that is difficult to obtain elsewhere. Mike Sutton, Jane Brown, Karen Wilson, and Jon Klein (2001) analyzed a national sample of high school students and found that more than half of the respondents said they had learned about birth control, contraception, or preventing pregnancy from magazines or television. School health classes, parents, and friends were the only other sources that were cited more frequently. However, parents often broach sexual topics awkwardly, if at all, and schools tend to address sexuality in clinical terms rather than in the context of relationships, emotions, and desire. Television, movies, music, music videos, magazines, and websites, in contrast, capitalize on topics that are considered taboo in other social situations, thus often making sexual media fare especially attractive for younger consumers.
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