What Would We Do Without Studies?
They spent money on this?
Sexual content on television is strongly associated with teen pregnancy, a new study from the RAND Corporation shows.
Researchers at the nonprofit organization found that adolescents with a high level of exposure to television shows with sexual content are twice as likely to get pregnant or impregnate someone as those who saw fewer programs of this kind over a period of three years. It is the first study to demonstrate this association, RAND said.
Next week, RAND comes out with their study that gravity leads to falling.
The suggested remedy is equally obvious.
A central message from the study is that there needs to be more dialogue about sex in the media, particularly among parents and their children, said Anita Chandra, the study’s lead author and a behavioral scientist at RAND.
Although the Hollywood culture is certainly a major contributor to the oversexualization of the media (and they could do their part, but won’t, and will whine publicly and loudly if you suggest they do), parents still need to be the gatekeeper.
As my kids would say, "Thank you, Captain Obvious!"
Filed under: Culture • Doug • Media • Movies • Music • Television
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While I recognize the tongue in cheek nature of your post, if I take it at face value, and based upon all of two days reading a dozen posts on this blog: I would have thought that scientific research supporting your assumptions would be welcomed, particularly as citable evidence in future efforts to moderate TV content. Have I misread this site’s perspective, or simply assumed too much about the post?
Yes, it is indeed welcome; you are correct. And perhaps my treatment of it here glosses over the fact that I agree with it.
My main thrust is to note that this shouldn’t have required a study to figure it out, and those who previously disagreed with the contention that one led to the other were simply bucking what was painfully obvious to the rest of us.
I first saw this news story at the airport gate waiting for a flight, and those around me had the same “We needed a study to find this out?” reaction. It was good to see that others already knew this, but that CNN reported it as news speaks to how willfully blind our society has become.