Young people in the United States today spend 6-7 hours each day, on average, with some form of media. Computer and Internet use is diffusing rapidly. By 2010, it is expected that most homes with children in the United States will have access to the Internet. The media-saturated world in which children live is a world in which sexual behavior is frequent and increasingly explicit. Youth today can hear and see sexual talk and portrayals in every form of media.
Adolescents rank the media with parents and peers as important sources of sexual information.
This may be because the media are better at depicting the passion and positive possibilities of sex than its problems and consequences. Despite increasing public concern about the potential health risks of early, unprotected sexual activity, only about one in 11 of the programs on television that include sexual content mention possible risks or responsibilities. Sexually transmitted diseases other than HIV and AIDS are almost never discussed, and unintended pregnancies are rarely shown as the outcomes of unprotected sex. 2 Abortion is a taboo topic, too controversial for commercial television and magazines. Homosexual and transgendered youth rarely find themselves represented in the mainstream media.