A 'Risque' Conclusion? Study Says Sexy TV Conceives More Teen Pregnancy

HATE TALKING ON THE TELEPHONE. I hate it so much that I rarely even answer. When I do pick it up, I've been known to lie repeatedly to get off as quickly as possible. Telling a telemarketer they just woke up my sleeping baby is my favorite.

This is exactly why I have no faith in a new study by the Rand Corp. which concludes that teens who watch more sexually explicit material on the "boob tube" are more likely to get pregnant.

You might be asking, 'What does this study have to do with the phone?' All of the data in the study was gathered over the phone. Over a period of three years, 12 to 17 year olds were asked to report via telephone their sexual behavior as well as what television they watched. The study concluded that kids who watched more visual vice were twice as likely to become pregnant than those who consumed wholesome programming.

That seems clear-cut enough -- until you look at the actual numbers in the experiment. About 25 percent of the kids dropped out of the study, with another 11 percent being dismissed because they didn’t report sexual activity or denied having any. In total, 64% of the original teenagers are missing from the results.

The researchers based their findings on 36% of a group of teenagers who spoke on the phone 3 times over the course of 3 years with researchers they didn't know personally. This is science?

There was only one saving grace in the New York Times report on the study: the writer suggests that parents sit down with their young adults and explain a realistic perspective of the sexual encounters they view.

My own Mom spent entire weekends watching My So Called Life marathons with me. She taught sex-ed at the time, so that helped. But what was most comforting was just having her there; not so much talking as her simply being present to answer questions, and to appreciate the program for the reasons I loved it.

As mom to two young boys, I know that their clarity of mind for anything beyond girl cooties and Mama-love is a decade away. I don't know exactly how I'll deal with regulating television when that time comes. But I do know I'd rather be sitting on the couch with my boys watching Degrassi and pointing out the realities and over-simplifications, rather than banning them from watching it at all.

As the NYTs' writer points out, parents don’t choose when their teen becomes intimate. But when that time comes for my boys, I want them to have the knowledge necessary to make their best decisions.

Maybe I should start watching Gossip Girl for the sake of future research. At the very least, it would give me a good reason to take the phone off the hook.

MzEll is a stay-at-home mom who writes, reads, knits, and tries to maintain sanity on a regular basis. You can read her blog at Cookiemonks.

Posted November 6, 2008