A study ("Does Watching Sex on Television Predict Teen Pregnancy? Findings from a National Longitudinal Survey of Youth") released recently by the RAND Corporation reports an increasing correlation with exposure to sexual content on television and sexual attitudes and behavior in today’s youth.  Shows like Gossip Girl, The Hills, and 90210, which are targeted to young men and women; may help create the perception that there is little risk to engaging in sex without the use of contraceptives.  Television’s casual portrayal of sex may create new social mores and may influence reproductive health outcomes. Most importantly, the study showed a link to teen pregnancy. According to the report

“Of the 718 boys and girls who said they were sexually active, 58 girls reported becoming pregnant over the course of the study. And 33 boys reported that they had gotten a girl pregnant during this period. Those who were in the 90th percentile, in terms of the amount of exposure they had to sexually explicit shows, were nearly twice as likely as those in the 10th percentile to have gotten pregnant — or gotten someone else pregnant.”

Anita Chandra, a behavioral scientist at RAND and lead author of the study, says

"The amount of sexual content on television has doubled in recent years, and there is little representation of safer sex practices in those portrayals."

The RAND study comes at a time of growing concern about teen pregnancy. In December of 2007, the Centers for Disease Control reported the first increase in the teen pregnancy rate since 1991. The teen birth rate for ages 15-19 rose three percent between 2005 and 2006. That followed a 14-year downward trend in which the teen birth rate fell by 34 percent from its all-time peak of 61.8 births per 1,000 in 1991.