Kids Exposed to Sexual Content Have More Partners at Young Ages, Says Study
To reinforce common sense, a new study conduct by Dartmouth College concluded that the more sex kids watch in movies, the greater the likelihood those children with engage in sex at an early age.
The study, which was published on July 18 in the journal Psychology Science, was based on the examination of several hundred popular movies from 1998 to 2004 which included recording the amount of sexual content in each of the films.
Researchers from the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences and the Geisel School of Medicine asked participants to identify which films, from a random list of 50, they had seen. Then they asked the 1,200 teenagers, aged 12-14, questions regarding the movies that they had watched during that time.
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Six years later, researchers interviewed the same group of teenagers about their sexual activity and behaviors. Researchers found that "teens who were exposed to more sexual content in movies started having sex at a younger age and had more sex partners" Ross O'Hara, the study's lead author, stated.
"For every hour of exposure to sexual content on-screen, participants were more than five times more likely to lose their virginity within six years," and the previous studies that have been conducted before strongly suggest that "parents need to restrict their children from seeing sexual content in movies at young ages," he added.
The movies examined for the study included the Austin Powers series, Notting Hill, American Beauty and James Bond films such as "The World is Not Enough." All the movies considered had some form of sexual content ranging from light kissing to sexually explicit scenes.
What may be most unnerving is the fact that the perceived sexual relationship portrayed onscreen was the basis of the perspective adolescents had regarding mature sexual relationships and could not differentiate between the two.
"These movies appear to fundamentally influence their personality through changes in sensation-seeking, which has far-reaching implications for all of their risk-taking behaviors," the study determined.
