This is the second in a three-part series of articles profiling the recent Kaiser Family Foundation report, Sex on TV (2). In this installment, we'll talk about the effects of television on adolescent viewers and the degree to which the industry addresses the risks and responsibilities associated with the sexual content of its programming.

Look. There are strangers in your home. Your kids invited them in. They arrived through the most open avenue of access to your home: the tube. TV.

They enter, Buffy and Dawson, each day, with little or no introduction. They are us--or so they say. And, glamorous as they are, we're generally eager to believe them, adults no less so than adolescents. But adolescents are getting chummy with these characters as they themselves are negotiating their identities, their place in an adult world--a world in which sex is potentially a first-hand reality.

Bonding with Buffy and Dawson

Can television characters really make a strong impression on adolescent viewers and influence their ideas about sex and sexuality? Jane Brown, PhD, a journalism professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a specialist in the study of adolescents and media, believes they can:

"What we know is that kids often identify very closely with these fictional characters," says Brown. "We refer to it as parasocial interaction; or, as one of my students calls it, false intimacy. They're very involved with these characters; they feel these characters are their friends. So if Buffy or Dawson is doing it, their friend is doing it. And they're following that very closely.

"This is a very important piece of the model: It's not only about 'are all characters being rewarded and not punished,' but, 'are my favorite characters, the characters I identify with, doing this? What are they doing? How are they rewarded and punished? What are the circumstances they find themselves in?' When there's identification, that's a more potent circumstance."

The Limits of 'Impressionable'

How serious is this problem of adolescent identification with TV characters? While it's true that kids identify with their fictional counterparts, it is often a somewhat idealized identification--less a matter of "this is who I am" than "this is who I wish I were" or "this is how I wish it could be"--free from the problems and complexities of the real world.

A 1995 survey conducted for the nonprofit children's advocacy group Children Now asked 750 kids between the ages of 10 and 16 what they thought about TV's influence over young people and the role TV should play in their lives. Eighty-two percent said they thought TV shows should help teach kids right from wrong, but 73% admitted they thought television, as it is, is mainly for entertainment. Sixty-nine percent said kids on TV don't deal with the same problems as real kids. Regarding TV's sexual content and its influence on their peers, 77% said there is too much sex before marriage on television, and 62% said that sex on TV and in movies influences kids to have sex too soon.

These results suggest that while the invasiveness of TV and the pervasiveness of its sexual content are considerable, most kids can think critically about what they see on the tube. They know the difference between fact and fiction, between reality and "reality programming."

Risks and Responsibilities

Sex on TV (2) shows us that the sexual content of mainstream television is increasing and that teenagers are being shown in sexual situations with increasing frequency, but is there any good news to be found in this report? Yes, according to the authors, there is a distinct trend toward greater responsibility by the industry when it comes to showing teens in sexual situations.

For example: Overall, 68% of TV shows have some sexual content, with10% of them making reference to sexual risks or responsibilities. However, when teens are involved, the balance shifts. Of those shows with any sexual content involving teens, 17% make some effort to address sexual risks and responsibilities (e.g., pregnancy, relationships, sexually transmitted diseases [STDs]); and of those programs showing teens talking about or engaging in sexual intercourse, 32% include reference to sexual risks and responsibilities. What's more, shows with teen-related sexual content are more likely to make these issues a major theme (8%) than other shows with sexual content (2%).

Overall, "programs that either depict or strongly imply sexual intercourse are much more likely (25%) than other shows to include references to the risks and responsibilities of sex," up from just 10% in the 1997/98 broadcasting season. There's room for improvement, clearly, but these findings suggest the television industry is not wholly unresponsive to the concerns of parents and educators.

Public Health, Personal Health

The Kaiser report categorizes sexual risks and responsibilities, as depicted on television, under three themes: 1. sexual patience--waiting for sex, either as a moral decision or to avoid STDs, pregnancy, and emotional turmoil; 2. sexual precaution--the use or discussion of measures such as condoms to prevent STDs or pregnancy; and 3. depiction of risk--emphasis on life-threatening or life-altering consequences of unplanned or unprotected sex. But there's more to sexual risk and responsibility than pregnancy and disease.

What's missing from these categories is the depiction of emotional accountability in relationships that do involve responsible sexual activity. In other words, "Am I being fully respectful of the person with whom I'm having sex, and is our sexual activity an expression of our intimacy." Television, traditionally, has failed to present fully realized, responsible adolescent relationships. But, as Dr. Brown points out, "There are now examples of people doing it right in television, and we should encourage and support them." For example, she likes the approach of Dawson's Creek, believing that it takes on the issues, presenting relatively realistic, rounded portrayals of what it's like to be a teen and a sexual being.

Alternatives?

The reality for many kids in this country is that if not for the talk of issues around sex and sexuality that television is providing, there'd be no talk of such matters at all. "Kids have few alternatives," says Brown. "Parents are still reluctant to talk about sex with their children and when they do it's mostly prohibition. What's left is learning from experience or friends or the media. And the media offers it in a safer, less embarrassing environment."

Naturally, some kids arrive more prepared than others. In general, Brown stresses, kids don't come as blank slates: "Some come to these portrayals more critically than others. Many are really trying to sort out 'how does this work for me; what are my immediate norms as compared to what I'm seeing.' They work with it. They negotiate with what they're seeing." Others arrive less prepared, perhaps confused or worried by it all. They need guidance from someone they trust.

--Taylor Sisk