Sex and Violence on Television<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
By <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Kerby Anderson
 
 
            When I speak at a Worldview Weekend, I usually give a talk on "Media and Discernment" to the youth. I am convinced that media is the greatest shaper of values in America today. And the most significant form of media in America is television. Most homes (98 percent) have a television set. And according to recent statistics, that TV in the average household is on more than seven hours each day.[1]
 
            So let me ask you a question. Do you think there too much sex and violence on television? If you said yes, you would agree with most Americans. One survey found that 75 percent of Americans felt that television had "too much sexually explicit material." Moreover, 86 percent believed that television had contributed to "a decline in values."[2]
 
Channel surfing through the television reveals plots celebrating premarital sex, adultery, and even homosexuality. Sexual promiscuity in the media appears to be at an all-time high. A study of adolescents (ages 12-17) showed that watching sex on TV influences teens to have sex. Youths were more likely to initiate intercourse as well as other sexual activities.[3]
 
A study by the Parents Television Council found that prime time network television is more violent than ever before. And they also found that this increasing violence is also of a sexual nature. They found that portrayals of violence are up 75 percent since 1998.[4]
 
The study also provided expert commentary by Deborah Fisher, Ph.D. She states that children, on average, will be exposed to a thousand murders, rapes, and assaults per year through television. She goes on to warn that early exposure to television violence has "consistently emerged as a significant predictor of later aggression."[5]
 
So what is the impact of watching television on subsequent behavior? There are abundant studies which document that what you see, hear, and read does affect your perception of the world and your behavior.
 
The American Academy of Pediatrics in 2000 issued a "Joint Statement on the Impact of Entertainment Violence on Children." They cited over one thousand studies, including reports from the Surgeon General's office and the National Institute of Mental Health. They say that these studies "point overwhelmingly to a causal connection between media violence and aggressive behavior in some children."[6]
 
In 1992, the American Psychological Association concluded that 40 years of research on the link between TV violence and real-life violence has been ignored, stating that "the 'scientific debate is over' and calling for federal policy to protect society."[7]
 
A 1995 poll of children ten to sixteen years of age showed that children recognize that "what they see on television encourages them to take part in sexual activity too soon, to show disrespect for their parents, [and] to lie and to engage in aggressive behavior." More than two-thirds said they are influenced by television; 77 percent said TV shows too much sex before marriage and 62 percent said sex on television and in movies influences their peers to have sexual relations when they are too young. Two-thirds also cited certain programs featuring dysfunctional families as encouraging disrespect toward parents.
 
            Social commentator Irving Kristol asked this question in a Wall Street Journal column: "Can anyone really believe that soft porn in our Hollywood movies, hard porn in our cable movies and violent porn in our 'rap' music is without effect? Here the average, overall impact is quite discernible to the naked eye. And at the margin, the effects, in terms most notably of illegitimacy and rape, are shockingly visible."[8]
 
Christians must be careful that sexual and violent images on television don't conform us to the world (Romans 12:2). Instead we should use discernment. Philippians 4:8 says, "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things."
 
I've had many people tell me that they watch television, and that it has no impact at all on their worldview or behavior. However the Bible teaches that "as a man thinks in his heart, so is he" (Proverbs 23:7).
 
Television viewing affects both adults and children in subtle ways. We must not ignore the growing body of data that suggests that televised imagery does affect our perceptions and behaviors. Our worldview and our subsequent actions are affected by what we see on television. Christians, therefore, must be careful not to let television conform us to the world, but instead should develop a Christian worldview.
 
 

[1] Veronis, Suhler & Associates, Wilkofsky Gruen Associates, from Television Bureau of Advertising, Consumer Media Usage, TV Basics (www.tvb.org/tvfacts/tvbasics27.htm).

[2] National Family Values: A Survey of Adults conducted by Voter/Consumer Research (Bethesda, MD, 1994).

[3] Rebecca Collins, et. al., "Watching Sex on Television Predicts Adolescent Initiation of Sexual Behavior," Pediatrics, Vol. 114 (3), September 2004.

[4] KristenFyfe, "More Violence, More Sex, More Troubled Kids," Culture and Media Institute, 11 January 2007, www.cultureandmediainstitute.org.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Joint Statement on the Impact of Entertainment Violence on Children, American Academy of Pediatrics , 26 July 2000.

[7] David Grossman, "What the Surgeon General Found; As Early as 1972, the Link Was Clear Between Violent TV and Movies and Violent Youths," Los Angeles Times, 21 October 1999, B-11.

[8] Irving Kristol, "Sex, Violence and Videotape," Wall Street Journal, 31 May 1994.