The dark side of the media technology

I run across certain statistics and thought in it is very important to know them to keep the balance between the advantage of media and the disadvantages. Media usage should be complimented by media education. Let me start with the view of television and its impact on young generation.

Television :

This generation views 16 to 17 hours of television each week and sees on average 14,000 sexual scenes and references each year. That's more than 38 references every day.

“The impact of television viewing is so large that even a moderate shift in the sexual content of adolescent TV watching could have a substantial effect on their sexual behavior.”

–Rebecca Collins, a RAND Corporation psychologist who led the study

•          By the time the average child graduates from high school, he/she will have watched 19,000 hours of TV including about 200,000 sexual acts and 1 million ACTS OF VIOLENCE.

•          Statistics on Teen pregnancy: Nationally, nearly one million young women under age 20 become pregnant each year. That means close to 2800 teens get pregnant each day.•          ( Facts in Brief: Teen Sex and Pregnancy, The Alan Guttmacher Institute, New York, 1996).

•          Approximately 4 in 10 young women in the U.S. become pregnant at least once before turning 20 years old.  ( Facts in Brief: Teen Sex and Pregnancy, The Alan Guttmacher Institute, New York, 1996).

•          Millennial’s Sexuality: Every day, 8,000 teenagers in the US become infected by an STD

•          This year, nearly 3 million teens will become infected.

•          About one quarter of the nation’s sexually active teens have been infected by an STD.

•          Every year, approximately one million teenagers become pregnant. (U.S. Center for Disease Control)

•          In 2000, some 240,000 children were born to girls age 18 or younger.  Nearly all these teenage mothers were unmarried.

•          More than 1/3 of all teenage pregnancies in the U.S. end in abortion. (C Trends Data Bank)

•          Average age of first sex: 15.8 years old

•          Average length of first sexual relationship:3.8 months

•          24.3% of adolescents report having first sex during the same month as the start of the relationship.

•          70% of teens ages 13 to 16 know what oral sex is, and more than 6-10 of them say they know at least a few 13-14 year olds who are having oral sex. (NBC and People Magazine)

•          Each year, approximately three million cases of sexually transmitted diseases are contracted by teens. (U.S. Center for Disease Control)

•          Teens watch 3-4 hours of TV per day.

•          Combined with Video games and video movies, teens may spend anywhere from 35-55 hours per week in front of the screen

•          Wow, that’s a full time job!

Sources: http://www.battlecry.com/index.cfm/PageID/1570/cfid/19164/cftoken/81872174/index.html