Teens who view television programs containing a lot of sexual content are twice as likely to become involved sexually at a younger age than teens who watched less, according to a study published in the September 2004 issue of Pediatrics, the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

The survey asked 1,792 teens aged 12 to 17 about their television viewing habits and about their sexual activity. The lead researcher, Rebecca Collins, referred to this study as "the strongest evidence yet that the sexual content of television programs encourages adolescents to initiate sexual intercourse and other sexual activities."

She added that shows that just talk about sex, and those that show it explicitly, affect teen sexual activity equally. "Both affect adolescents' perceptions of what is normal sexual behavior and propels their own sexual behavior," she said.

The study also showed that 12-year-olds who viewed large amounts of sexual content on TV behaved sexually more like kids two or three years older. "The advancement in sexual behavior we saw among kids who watched a lot of sexual television was striking," Ms. Collins said (LifeSiteNews.com, Sept. 7, 2004).