The Kaiser Family Foundation Report
By Altaf Husain
How much does the sexual content on TV really affect our lives? This question is the focus of a recently released report from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation entitled, "Sex on TV."
Citing a social environment in which there are "nearly four million cases of sexually transmitted diseases among American teenagers every year, and more than three-quarters of a million teen pregnancies," the authors contend, "the messages young people receive about sex are vitally important, including those they receive from the media" (Executive Summary).
The study was conducted as a part of the Foundation's Program on the Entertainment Media & Public Health (EMPH), established to examine the impact of entertainment media on society. In addition, the program also works with entertainment industry leaders to help them convey important health messages to the public.
Commissioned by the Foundation, the study was conducted by Professor Dale Kunkel of the University of California at Santa Barbara, Victoria Rideout at the Kaiser Foundation, and several other professionals. The researchers chose a total of 1,114 shows aired over the period from October 1999 to March 2000 and including all kinds of shows except newscasts, sports events, and children's shows. A composite week of programming was constructed using 938 shows randomly selected from ten channels. The remaining 176 shows basically reflect primetime broadcast network shows from a two-week sample.
There were no channels spared in this study. The selection included broadcast networks, syndicated programming, public television stations, and basic and premium cable channels. The ten channels in the study represent all segments of the television industry: ABC, CBS, Fox, HBO, Lifetime, NBC, TNT, PBS, USA and KTLA, a Warner Brothers affiliate out of Los Angeles.
What Is Sexual Content?
The study has, in effect, done what all parents should be doing on a regular basis: monitoring the content of the television shows that their children are watching.
Quite often, parents who do not have cable television access in their homes wrongly assume that local affiliates of broadcasting networks will not air programming that is questionable in nature. Yet, right alongside the comic situations is explicit references to sexual behavior.
The study cites scenes such as one in which "a couple kiss passionately and undress each other by the bed, the scene fades to black and cuts to the next morning with the couple naked under the sheets" as very clear instances where sexual intercourse is implied.
The researchers kept a clear focus on two aspects of television programming: talk about sex and depictions of sexual behavior. Thousands of scenes were reviewed for either of these two broad categories of sexual content, and there special attention was paid to determine whether the producers of a specific show had used sexual content as the basis of the entire show.
The Executive Summary of the study, p. 11 mentioned that "Talk about sex includes characters discussing their own or others' sexual actions or interests. All scenes containing sexual content were analyzed for any mention of any issues concerning the possible risks or responsibilities of sexual activity, including any reference to contraception, condoms, safer sex, sexually transmitted diseases, pregnancy, abortion, abstinence, or the possibility of waiting to have sex. All such references were counted for this study, even if they were minor or inconsequential.Sexual behavior includes depictions of sexual intercourse, scenes in which sexual intercourse is strongly implied, intimate touching, passionate kissing, and physical flirting. Only those scenes in which the sexual behavior was a substantial or primary emphasis of the scene were included in the study; any scenes in which there was sexual behavior but the emphasis on sex was minor or inconsequential were not included in the counts of sexual content."
Key Findings
Among the study’s major findings, the researchers report that:
- Sixty-eight percent of all shows include sexual content, up from 56% in 1997 and 1998.
- About one out of every four shows (27%) on television includes sexual behaviors; the remainder feature characters talking about sex.
- Three out of four prime-time shows include sexual content, up from two out of three during the 97/98 season.
- There was a substantial increase in the percentage of situation comedies that included sexual content.
- Sexual intercourse is depicted or strongly implied in one of every ten shows on TV.
- Two-thirds (68%) of the characters involved in intercourse-related scenes were adults appearing to be 25 or older; about a quarter (23%) appeared to be young adults ages 18-24; and 9% appeared to be under 18.
- Of all shows with sexual content, one in ten includes a reference to safer sex or the possible risks or responsibilities of sex.
- Programs that depict teen characters in sexual situations are much more likely than other shows to include references to the risks or responsibilities of sex.
- Programs that either depict or strongly imply sexual intercourse are much more likely than other shows to include references to the risks or responsibilities of sex.
Who Are the Most Vulnerable?
Overall, the Kaiser Foundation has made a much-needed contribution to the on-going discussion about sex on television. The authors admit at the outset that teenagers are especially vulnerable to the messages that are broadcast on television. Acknowledging that "there are many other more dominant influences on adolescent sexual development," the authors contend that "TV's sexual messages clearly play a part as well - helping not only to inform young people, but also to shape their ideas of what other people their age are doing, saying and thinking."
Perhaps the television industry will heed the power it wields in influencing adolescent sexual development and behavior. Realistically, however, it is the duty of every parent to monitor what his or her child is watching.
Altaf Husainis a social worker in the United States and has been a contributing writer to IslamOnline since its inception.
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