co-authored by Samantha Wenzel
Youth are increasingly exposed to media content with sexual content, messages, and behaviors through television, film, the internet, and new media. There has been less research done on the effects on media on the sexual behaviors and attitudes of youth, compared to other areas like violence, alcohol use, or eating disorders, because legal issues tend to limit experiments to college-aged participants (Iannotta 2009). Still, some studies have been able to demonstrate strong relationships between youth exposure to sexual content in media and earlier sexual activity (Brown et al., 2006; Brown & Newcomer, 1991; Collins et al., 2004).
http://www.tylerjanderson.com/2012-social-media-statistics/
THE CONTENT and THE PROBLEM
Media often portrays sex in a comedic or positive light without discussing possible consequences or dangers. Sexual behavior is shown as early, unprotected and simultaneously glamorous and risk-free (Brown 2008). At the same time, very little straightforward, educational content about healthy, responsible, appropriate sex exists. Studies on sexual content on television found that programs averaged seven scenes of sexual-related content per hour, and little to none of that time was about sexual and reproductive health topics like birth control, abstinence, or STI prevention (Brown, Steele, & Walsh-Childers, 2002; Kunkel, Eyal, Finnerty, Biely, & Donnerstein, 2005). 92% of 14-21 year olds surveyed said at least “some” of their TV, movies, music, games, or websites show people “kissing, fondling, or having sex” (Ybarra et al. 2014). These problems that we are dealing with need to be addressed, and we will focus on the latter by producing a program that offers adolescents engaging and healthy information about sex and their bodies.
The American Academy of Pediatrics has argued that media representations of sexuality may influence teen sexual behavior. Strasburger (2012) reported that results from 17 longitudinal correlational studies ‘‘allow cause-and-effect conclusions to be drawn’’ and that ‘‘virtually all of them show an impact of sexual content in the media on adolescents’ sexual behavior.”’ Yet, an interesting paradox seems to be at play: content research shows that media has become more sexualized over the past 15 years but during that period, teen sex has declined and contraceptive use has increased (Brown 2008).
Despite this, we still see some problems in need of intervention. Teen birth rates in the US are some of the highest in the industrialized world, more than half of pregnancies in young adults are unplanned, and more than one quarter of girls have an STI (Brown 2008). Children seem to participate in risky sexual behaviors at younger ages: 16% of teens have sex by age 15, 33% by age 16, and 48% by age 17 (Finer, L.B. & Philbin, J.M. 2013). This increases the risks for unplanned pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases because they are being sexually active for almost a decade or more before marriage. Additionally, youth who have sex at age 14 or younger take longer than their older peers to begin using contraceptives (Finer, L.B. & Philbin, J.M. 2013).
In a survey of 12-17 year olds, youth with high exposure to sexual content on TV were twice as likely to initiate sexual intercourse within the next year and were sexually active 6 months prior than youth with low exposure (Collins 2004, as cited by Brown 2008). In that same study, girls viewed more sexual content on TV than boys.
AUDIENCE
Boys have sex earlier than girls (12.48 to 13.16 years old). Sex also seems to be correlated with low-income youth more, with one in four children between 11-16 years old having sex, leading to an average of 12.77 years (Jordahl, T. & Lohman, B.J. 2009). Racially, white youth who had a “sexual media diet” when 12-14 years old were 2.2 more likely to have had sex soon after as 14-16 year olds. The same was not found for blacks, which leads to the conclusion that whites’ exposure to sexual content in media accelerates their sexual activity and increases their risk of engaging in sex earlier more than blacks who are more influenced by parental and peer expectations (Brown et. al 2006). In terms of age, when children reach 9 years old, they are more likely to purposefully seek out information on sexual behavior, sexual health, and contraception (Iannotta 2001). Plus, it has been developmentally proven that children under 9 years old might find sexual content upsetting, so we are targeting our program to children over this age, specifically age 12 and over.
MEDIUM
Television, film, and music which compromise the longer-existing, traditional mediums are of primary concern regarding inappropriate sexual content. However, we think that it our internet-based program would be the best medium for sexual health education because of its accessibility and accessibility. A Kaiser Family Foundation study found that adolescents spend 4.5 hours with television and 6.5 hours on the internet each day. Our program would encompass two of the five media strategies for sexual health promotion according to The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy: “education-entertainment” and new media technologies. One study found that 41 percent of young respondents said they had changed their behavior because of health information they found online, and almost half then contacted a health care provider. Youth will be able to access our media more privately, more frequently, and in more contexts than traditional media.
PROPOSED SOLUTION
In order to educate teens about sexuality and encourage sex positive thinking, we plan to create a web series targeted to children from 12-16 years old. When attempting to figure out the best way to reach our audience, we found inspiration in a popular sex education YouTube channel – “Sex +”. Sex + is a web series hosted by Laci Green. Laci Green is a young, educated, sexual education activist. Her videos cover a variety of topics from explaining feminism to “the truth about pulling out”. The videos are honest, funny, and highly informational. Additionally, her videos are extremely popular with the young audience that makes up many YouTube viewers.
As we don’t want to create a copy-cat channel of Laci Green’s, our approach has a distinct twist. Our web series – title to be determined – would be hosted on YouTube, with a video a week focused on a specific sexual topic. The format of the show would follow suit of the show “Girl Code” or “I Love the 80s” in which a range of people provide honest commentary on the same subject. The people featured on the show would range from graduate students educated on the topic, student activists, YouTubers, Vine celebrities, bloggers, etc. One report by TECHsex USA (2011) found that “the most potentially effective sex ed programs are a mashup of pop culture, TV, social media, friends, family, mobile technology and experts.” We would like the people on the show to represent a variety of cultures and gender and sexualities – but all within their 20s. We want children who watch our series to relate to the “cast” as they would a big brother or big sister. We want the show to tackle hard subjects but all while maintaining a frank yet witty approach — more MTV in essence than PBS. We find that humor is the best way to make an audience learn about something they may not initially care to learn about.
We chose YouTube as our platform due to the rising status of YouTube as it competes with television as the most popular medium for entertainment among teenagers and young adults. Additionally, we considered that a child would be more likely to watch a YouTube video about sex education privately on their phone than watch a television show in the communal family room of their home. The comment section of YouTube is an additional feature that provides us direct interaction with our audience. Through the comments viewers can ask additional questions that the cast can answer, the audience can offer each other advice, and we can get a sense of the sort of topics that that our audience wants to learn about. Essentially, we want our show to be a safe space for teens where their interests, opinions, and questions matter.
Topics to be discussed would range from how to have safe sex to reviews of television shows and movies in terms of their sex positive qualities. We want a broad range of topics questions to be covered – despite the conservative nature of our public.
Works Cited
Brown, J.D., White A.B., Nikopoulou L (1993). “Disinterest, intrigue, resistance: early adolescent girls’ use of sexual media content” (pp. 177-195). In: Greenberg, B.S., Brown J.D., & Buerkel-Rothfuss N.L. (eds.) Media, sex and the adolescent. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press.
Brown, J. (Ed). (2008). “Managing the Media Monster: The Influence of Media (From Television to Text Messages) on Teen Sexual Behavior and Attitudes.” Washington, DC: National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy
Brown, J.D. et al. (2006). “Sexy Media Matter: Exposure to Sexual Content in Music, Movies, Television, and Magazines Predicts Black and White Adolescents’ Sexual Behavior”. Pediatrics 117 (4): 1018–1027.
Finer, L.B. and Philbin, J.M. (2013.) “Sexual initiation, contraceptive use, and pregnancy among young adolescents, Pediatrics 131 (5): 1-6.
Iannotta, J. (2009.) “Regulating the media: Sexually explicit content” (Chapter 21, pp. 479-502). In: Calvert, S.L & Wilson, B.J. (eds.) The Handbook of Children, Media, and Development. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.
Jordahl, T. & Lohman, B.J. (2009) A Bioecological Analysis of Risk and Protective Factors Associated with Early Sexual Intercrouse of Young Adolscents. Children and Youth Services Review 31(12): 1272-1282.
TECHsex USA: Youth Sexuality and Reproductive Health in the Digital Age. (2011) The Ford Foundation. <http://www.isis-inc.org/ISISpaper_techsx_usa.pdf>
Ybarra et. al (2014). “Sexual Media Exposure, Sexual Behavior, and Sexual Violence Victimization in Adolescence.” Clinical Pediatrics pp.1-9.