What message are children getting about sexual mores, and what effect will it have on their behavior?
I'll start with the bottom line: "Although a great deal is known about the effects of mass media on other adolescent behaviors, such as eating, smoking and drinking, we know basically nothing about the effects of mass media on adolescent sexual behaviors," the report's principal investigator, S. Liliana Escobar-Chaves of the University of Texas Center for Health Promotion and Prevention Research, concluded.
But to hazard a guess based on clear evidence that media representations influence teenage eating, smoking and drinking habits, adolescents are almost certainly affected --- negatively --- by sexual references and images from television, in movies and video games, in music, in magazines and on Web sites.
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