Is Television Affecting the Teen Pregnancy Rate?

Remember in “I Love Lucy” when Ricky and Lucy couldn’t even sleep in the same bed? Well, in television shows today, not only do they show people in the same bed but they go as far as making a point to show people performing sexual acts to keep the viewers attention. Many channels directed towards certain areas such as music and family, now include much more. What used to be Music Television Live (MTV) is now a channel that has shows about young people and their sex lives. Also, what was once a kid-friendly ABC Family, has turned into a channel that focuses on telling kids how to have sex. They practically want you to be sucked in to the more sexual scenes to make the show more appealing to minors. Especially in shows directed towards young teenagers, which got me thinking: if TV shows stopped encouraging teen sex, wouldn’t the rate of teen pregnancy decrease?

The first time I remember seeing a pregnant girl in my school, I was in seventh grade and the girl was only in the eighth. The older I got, the number of girls becoming pregnant increased. I never thought much about it until my friends were the ones who were getting pregnant. Starting at that point in my life, teen pregnancy seemed to be accepted more and more.

My belief for the major cause of this problem is media and the things that society is letting it portray to young adults. Several decades ago people did not even talk about how babies were made and now they are practically showing it being done in television shows and movies. Society today is becoming more open than it once was and therefore causing kids to see and hear things that used to not be informed to people at that age.

Lately I’ve been watching “The Secret Life Of The American Teenager” on the ABC family channel. The show is about a girl who gets pregnant the summer before her freshmen year of high school. Many of the characters in the show are either participating in sex or talk about their plans for sex. The lives of these characters seem very appealing and that is what pulls viewers to watch the show. I’ve had several conversations with my friends about this show and why they think we are so interested in it. People are so interested in this show, and shows like this, because the media has made this lifestyle look fun, exciting, and sometimes even glamorous; which is why, I believe that many young people go out and try to imitate some of the things that they see on television.

TV shows are sending out the wrong messages to young boys and girls. There is a line that the TV industries have crossed, and it should be stopped. There is a difference between informing kids about sex and then virtually demonstrating it on television. Just because it is a natural part of life doesn’t mean it should be advertised so openly. If all that is filling kid’s heads is sex and that it’s okay for there to be shows that illustrate people their age participating in it, why wouldn’t they do it themselves?

Television is everywhere. In her article “Don’t Turn Off the TV Week”, writer for The New York Times Lisa Belk in informs readers of how big a role television truly plays. She writes that the average child watches 1,680 minutes of television per week and that 50 percent of children from the ages 6 to 17 have TV’s in their bedroom. Young kids are constantly in taking what the media is putting out into the world.

So many kids are influenced every day by television, friends, family, and movies. From what people see on the news to what they read in magazines, they listen to society because they feel that society knows what’s best for them. Maybe we should take a step back and look at the way life used to be. Perhaps having strong moral values and stricter rules like people used to have could help prevent certain problems, such as teen pregnancy. We really need to think about what we let our younger siblings, friends, and future children watch. If the media isn’t going to change what they are advertizing on television, then it is our job as friends, teachers, parents, etc. to control what we are letting be watched in our homes.

-Kristi Genton-