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Why sexual education is important for teens
Media impact on teenagers
Media affecting teens pregnancy
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Most believe teen pregnancy is caused by lack of education or poor choices made by young adults. Others believe it can be caused by parents that are not strict enough or too strict to their child. However, could one of the causes for teen pregnancy be the media? Could popular television shows such as Teen Mom, Sixteen and Pregnant, and The Secret Life of the American Teenager, and movies such as Juno be one of the causes for the rise of teen pregnancy in 2015? Since 2014, the number of infants born to teen mothers has been 249,067; six years after the popular teen shows were released. In the book Teen Sexuality Opposing Viewpoints, Dr. Jane Brown talks about the media and the internet’s effect on teens. She says, “Sexually inexperienced people may use the media to fill in the gaps in their understanding of how a particular scenario might work out” (41). Most would agree with Brown, since it is nearly impossible for a young adult to turn on the TV and not be faced with a steamy scene. In this day and time, most young people would rather get sexual information from the internet or TV. Some teens feel it is best to get their …show more content…
Brian Houseman posted an article of the same nature on the Gale Opposing View Points Database; saying how he also believes the media is playing a role in teen pregnancy. In his article, “Popular Media Glamorize Teen Pregnancy,” Houseman speaks of how tabloids and the media make teen pregnancy seem like it is the most glorious thing that could happen to a teen. Houseman says, “Shortly after, Time magazine coined the phrase “The Juno Effect” when scores of teen girls began to talk about how much fun it would be to have a baby of their own. Then we heard that a group of seventeen Massachusetts girls formed a pack to get pregnant together. Some of the girls were even disappointed when they found out they did not become pregnant”
The media is one contributor to teen pregnancy. The star of Zoey 101, Jamie Lynn Spears, became pregnant when she was only 16. Parents were shocked to find out that the girl they once thought was a good role model for their young teens was actually not (Teen Pregnancy). Singers like Rihanna, and rappers like Lil Wayne and Nicki Minaj sing about extreme sexual acts, and parents allow their teens to listen to the music. Some stars who have been known to dress and dance promiscuously have supported abstinence such as, Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez, and Jordan Sparks (Teen Pregnancy). The Jonas Brothers even took virginity pledges in their teens, but with these celebrities promiscuous ways it often contradicts their support (Teen
16 & Pregnant is a TV show aired on MTV that as the name suggests, focuses on the lives of various teens who are pregnant whilst still in high school; each tells a different story. In these episodes, viewers are able to observe the struggles these teens face as a result of pregnancy during pubescent development. Controversy has been made as a result of the release of this show; this left viewers torn between whether 16 & Pregnant discourages teen pregnancy or shrouds it within curiosity. There is more than sufficient evidence to say that 16 & Pregnant, does in fact discourage teen pregnancy for various reasons. According to the New York Times report, the National Bureau of Economic Research compared Nielsen television ratings to birth records, and concluded that in areas where teens viewed MTV more after the debut of 16 & Pregnant, there was a rapid decline of teen pregnancy rates when compared to other areas that viewed it less frequently although some believe the show glamorizes the subject matter. Some also believe that it encourages the teens to disrespect their parents in every way possible; quite to the contrary, watching 16 & Pregnant is very beneficial to discouraging teen pregnancy and family problems by displaying the hardships these teens face, teaching the importance of completing high school and encouraging viewers to use various contraceptives methods or practice abstinence.
“In 2005, out of 68% of TV shows that showed steamy sexual content, only 15% discussed risk and responsibility. And it’s not just movies and TV: Music, video games, and the Internet are also filled with sexually explicit, often-degrading messages that can shape kids’ attitudes about sex.” (greatschools.org)
...ers, Kim. Sexual Teens, Sexual Media: Investigating Media’s Influence on Adolescent Sexuality. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2002.
Today’s young men are increasingly being influenced by the harming mass media. Starting at a young age, these young boys are big active users of many types of media such as watching countless number of hours of television, movies, and sports programs, listening to radio programs and CDs, and playing violent video games. These boys are increasingly surfing the Internet at record numbers unsupervised. All of these forms of media are making huge influential decisions in their lives. Young males are least likely to read beneficial sources of media such as newspapers and magazines.
Although the rate of teenage pregnancy in the United States has declined greatly within the past few years, it is still an enormous problem that needs to be addressed. These rates are still higher in the 1990's than they were only a decade ago. The United State's teenage birthrate exceeds that of most other industrialized nations, even though American teenagers are no more sexually active than teenagers are in Canada or Europe.
Technology and things like social media have a great effect on sexual views, behavior and practice among generations. Recent advances in technology are influencing sexual behaviors because of things like computers, smartphones, sex technology (sex toys, pornography, etc.). The list is growing and so are the many possible uses of these technologies. In fact, one in every ten websites is a pornography website, (Krotoski, 2011). This alone gives individuals access to the erotic, fantasy world of sex. These advances in technology, and the availability of this information has made it easier than ever to enter the world of sex.
More information on the effects of teen pregnancy would cause a larger decline in pregnancy rates. Although there are many books and students are educated on human development. If teens were better educated then it would help them to make better decisions. Not much information is given on what effects of becoming pregnant or the resources available to pregnant teenagers. For example, there is less than a 2% chance that a teen mother will have earned a college degree by the time she is 30 (11 Facts about Teen Pregnancy). One of the effects of teen pregnancy is depression due to the many fluctuating hormones. The loss of any supports from friend or colleagues throughout the pregnancy cycle leaves the mother feeling alone. Parents don’t know what to do and are unprepared to deal with their child’s pregnancy. A second effe...
Today I will be talking about the way the authors and creators of a television commercial and newspaper article influence us to their opinion by writing the way they do. The topic that I am studying is Teenage Pregnancy. This topic is always going to be in the media for different reasons, and occasionally you hear about a story of a young girl getting pregnant due to un-safe sex. There will always be issues with this subject within society because so many people have different opinions and views of this topic and weather or not it right or wrong.
This world has become immersed in online media from socializing on networking sites to seeking information on search engines. People of all ages have become reliant on online media, but the most engaged users are the younger, more easily impacted generations. Although there are many positive uses for online media, there are many negative uses as well. Unfortunately, it is all too easy for these negative effects to impede upon the perceptions of adolescents. Some countries have been trying to reduce this effect by expelling the inappropriate content of online media ("Influence on Children Media...”). However, in the United States, children are thrown in the waves, expected to stay afloat in this massive sea, but many are being dragged under the surface by the nefarious temptations media creates. Content that is not appropriate for the young, growing minds of children are easily accessible; a myriad of devices may be used to access this material, all at the click of a button. Without adult content filters on online media, adolescents of various ages are exposed to dangerous conceptions. A world of pornography, violence, and public humiliation lay in the user’s fingertips.
Teen pregnancy is a heavy topic in the United States that is now becoming the norm to most people. It has become broadcasted everywhere from TV shows, movies, and the Internet. Approximately 7% of teenage girl between ages 15-18 in the United States will become pregnant. Teen pregnancy has been down 42% since 1990 yet United States teen pregnancy rates are higher than any other first world country. Teenage pregnancy effects teenager’s physical health, social life, education, and jobs.
Young people especially the teenagers are sensitive and receptive to learning new things. The media provides more than they can handle. Access to different programs, shows, and movies affect the manner that the teenagers behave. Today, it is unfortunate to say that the media is becoming more sexual and violent than the older days, resulting in similar behaviors among the teens (Craig, & Baucum, 2001). By watching programs intended for the adults, teenagers are drifting even further. They start behaving like adults without the prerequisites of becoming one. This means that they have contents that do not match with their ages. And then terrible things begin – increased college dropouts, teenage pregnancies, and increased cases of suicides. Some teenagers who had bright future ahead of them will
They may even be making the trend worse in times to come, by publicizing and even glamorizing the lives of young teen mothers and fathers. In recent years, television shows such as “16 & Pregnant”, ”The Maury Povich Show”, ”Secret Life of the American Teenager”, and “Teen Mom” have each played a role in portraying teenage pregnancy in a positive light. Some may claim that the shows are meant to serve as a way of educating our youth. In the past, teenage pregnancy has been an issue that infrequently was publicized in the media and was almost seen as taboo, and it most certainly wasn’t showcased. Recently, reality television shows with themes surrounding teenage mothers and fathers seem to be all the rage, and as a viewing audience, we are drawn to them. But do these so-called reality shows indeed show the reality of child rearing? I think not. The majority of these types of shows portray a twisted view of reality in that teenage pregnancy is relaxed, joyful, and even fun! Can you imagine the network ratings if they showed the real life of a teen parent, or any parent for that matter? Imagine the mom who has had little-to-no sleep for the past two days, has work or term paper deadlines to meet, and is holding a vomiting child with a temperature of 104°F in her arms, because that’s the only place this little
Sexually active youths tend to be more exposure to media than any other members of society. The reason behind that is because they are in charge of their own time without much interference from their parents and burdensome responsibilities. This, combined with the fact that both implicit and explicit sexual content and crime in the mass media has grown over time predisposes youths to premarital sex (Rosengren, 2000).
Sexual activity in the mass media is another negative influence on teenagers. The first example is early sexual intercourse. According to Stockwell, a research shows that teenagers who are exposed to a lot of sexual content on television are more to likely to have sex by 16 years of age than those with limited exposure.