In the final installment of our series profiling the Kaiser Family Foundation's new report on sex and television, we discuss what parents can do about the avalanche of sexual messages their children encounter, everyday, from television and other popular media.

For the next 80 years, your kids will be making decisions regarding sex based on what they're learning today. Television is, for better and for worse, our kids' primary source of sex education--a truth that today, most would agree, is predominantly for the worse.

In the Kaiser Family Foundation's analysis: Yes, television is getting better at portraying adolescents confronting sex and sexuality in fully realized contexts--but it still has a long way to go.

In TV We Trust?

To what extent television should be held accountable is debatable, but there once was a time when the industry was more readily trusted by all.

"Prior to all the deregulation of the Reagan years," says Kathy Giuffre, PhD, a sociologist at Colorado College who teaches media studies, "television was seen as a public trust. Then the approach changed very much to a bottom-line, business-oriented mentality, and we saw an enormous change in the way television shows were constructed.

"We saw the introduction of characters and shows that were exclusively--not just primarily, but exclusively--fabricated with the intent of selling toys, selling merchandise. The television industry wasn't considered to be beholden to any sort of public responsibility; it wasn't their job."

At the same time, a new breed of teenager appeared on television, bearing little or no resemblance to Wally Cleaver.

"If we think back to the 80s and what adolescent television was like then," says Giuffre, "those were the heydays of Beverly Hills 90210. There began to be a difference in the way teens were portrayed and thereby targeted. Teenagers were given Dynasty-like shows of their own."

And thus came to television a more socially independent and, thus, more sexually autonomous adolescent. In reaction, we've seen calls for more oversight or self-regulation of the industry.

But is it fair to scapegoat the television industry? It's certainly easy to do so. Politicians stand to lose few votes in suggesting television and movies are at fault in a perceived decline in social values. Thus today do we hear politicians of diverse ideology bemoaning, in the words of vice-presidential candidate Joseph Lieberman, a "vacuum of values" in an "omnipresent" popular culture.

Can TV 'get it right'?

As the Kaiser report points out, some people in the industry are making an effort to bring more responsible treatment of sexual subjects to television. According to Jane Brown, PhD, a professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a specialist in the study of adolescents and media, Dawson's Creek is an example of a TV program that's generally doing a pretty good job: "Their characters are working at being more sexually responsible; they talk about condoms and delaying sexual intercourse till they're ready. They had a good script that dealt with homosexuality."

"We try to be true to our characters, true to their relationships," says Paul Stupin, executive producer of Dawson's Creek, "and most of all we try to tell a good story. If that involves sex, we try to handle that truthfully and sensitively. We're aware of the impact we have on our audience, and we're aware that our characters are, to a degree, role models. We want to make sure our audience is exposed to a healthy treatment of the issues."

In placing characters in emotionally complicated situations, this popular program on The WB acknowledges that adolescent relationships can be just as perplexing and entangled as those of adults. "When we do deal with sexual content," Stupin adds, "we are very serious about addressing risks and responsibilities. We've had the Media Project, the Kaiser Family Foundation, and the Entertainment Industries Council each come and talk with us over the seasons. They've all always been very helpful to us."

Talk back to your TV (and to your children)

The Kaiser Family Foundation, Advocates for Youth, the Center for Media Literacy, the New Mexico Media Literacy Project, and other organizations are all part of a burgeoning media literacy movement in the U.S. that aims to educate kids, parents, public policymakers, and the entertainment industries. According to Brown, engaging the television industry in media literacy efforts "means persuading them to be more socially responsible, rewarding them for being responsible, and continuing to monitor what they do."

As a concerned parent, advancing media literacy means taking an active role in what your kids watch--basically, talking back to your television. Center for Media Literacy president Elizabeth Thoman writes, "Instill the habit of talking out loud to TV--express your point of view. Challenge and question what you see and what you hear; encourage your children to do the same."

The Center for Research on the Effects of Television offers a list of suggestions for watching TV with your kids. For example: "Explain your own feelings and interpretations [of characters and content] ... but allow your child to express his/her own opinions, which might not be the same as yours."

Eager as you may be to help your kids navigate the complexities of sex and sexuality, it can be difficult to find just the right moment to drop sex into the conversation. Take advantage of those times when such issues arise on television to open the floor for discussion. It pays off. Advocates for Youth says teens who've had discussions about sex with their parents are seven times more likely to feel they can communicate with a partner about HIV/AIDS than teens who have not had such discussions. Likewise, teens who discussed the use of condoms with their mothers prior to first intercourse are significantly more likely to use condoms than those who did not.

Open Floor

In France, Germany, and the Netherlands, television tends to be more sexually explicit than in this country, but teen abortion and AIDS case rates are much lower. "Why are adolescent sexual health indicators so much more positive in [these] three European countries than they are in the United States?" asks an Advocates for Youth report. "The answer: Societal openness and comfort in dealing with sexuality, including teen sexuality, and pragmatic governmental policies create greater, easier access to sexual health information and services for all people, including teens, in these nations."

"Think of television," suggests Jane Brown, "as one part of our culture that could help us have a more reasonable and open discourse about sexuality," depicting sexuality as "an important expression of interpersonal relationships."

Television as one part of a healthier media and cultural diet?

Think of it. It could happen.