Early exposure of adolescents to sexually explicit media is likely to result in the former engaging in risky sexual behavior both now and later in life. Although the developed nations are more affected by sexually explicit media, the developing countries are also influenced negatively due to technological development. Risky sexual behaviors such as unsafe sex, high partner change rate, or inconsistent condom use may have long-term health effects, including teen pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and substance abuse.
Previous studies have been done on the effects of exposure to sexually explicit media in the early adolescent. This article aims at improving the available data by using an instrumental variable to collect information. According to Lin et al. (2020), almost 50% of adolescents are exposed to sexual media content by the 8th grade. Comparing the adolescents exposed to sexually explicit media and those who are not, the ones watching such media are likely to engage in risky sexual behavior while others are not (Lin et al. 2020). The sexually explicit media content influences the former in their teenagehood and later in life.
When teens engage in risky sexual behavior, they are likely to be mentally or physically impacted. The level of mental and physical influence mainly depends on the degree and the amount of sexually explicit content the teenagers have been watching. Teens’ culture also determines the degree of sexually explicit media; they are exposed by the time they are 17years old (Lin et al. 2020). Asian countries are experiencing increased risky sexual behavior among adolescents, which can be attributed to cultural changes. Further studies would be done to examine how the frequency of exposure affects young adults.
Reference
Lin, W. – H., Liu, C. – H., & Yi, C. – C. (2020). Exposure to sexually explicit media in early adolescence is related to risky sexual behavior in emerging adulthood. PLoS ONE, 15(4), 1-26. Web.