Study says sexual scenes have nearly doubled

Scenes featuring kissing, fondling, and talk about sex have nearly doubled on television since 1998, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation study released yesterday. Among the top 20 watched shows by teens -- which include ''Desperate Housewives," ''The O.C.," and ''One Tree Hill" -- 70 percent include sex talk and depictions of sexual behavior, researchers found.

While family advocates reacted to the study by calling onHollywood or Congress to limit the portrayals, some Boston-area teens said that television isn't influencing them, it's merely presenting an exaggerated version of real life.

Sarah Magaziner, a 17-year-old senior at Milton Academy, agrees. ''The mind-set is already that sex is OK . . . I don't think anyone is rationalizing their behavior by saying, 'It's OK, it happened on TV,' " she says.

A fan of ''Sex and the City" and ''The O.C.," Magaziner contends that more of her peers are swayed by the thin bodies on TV than the sexual behavior.

''What I hear people say more is 'I wish I had her body' as opposed to 'I wish I had that lifestyle,' " Magaziner says. ''I think people recognize shows like 'The O.C.' are a bit outrageous. That's what makes them appealing."

The Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit based in Menlo Park, Calif., has studied the issue of sexuality on TV biennially since 1998. This year's study of the 2004-05 television season examined a sampling of a week's programming (1,154 shows) on ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, HBO, Lifetime, TNT, USA Network, and a WB and PBS affiliate between 7 a.m. and 11 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. The top-20 shows watched by 12- to 17-year-olds were analyzed separately.

Dale Kunkel, a professor of communication at the University of Arizona, helped conduct the study. He said the most compelling finding was that the number of scenes with sexual content in the program sample had risen from 1,930 in 1998 to 3,783 last season. Teen shows averaged 6.7 sex-related scenes per hour.

The number of shows depicting or implying sexual intercourse was down to 11 percent of the sample, compared to 14 percent in 2002. But risk and safe-sex messages (including depictions of condom use or consequences like unplanned pregnancy or AIDS) were used in just 14 percent of shows with sexual content, down from 15 percent of shows in 2002.

''If you are the parent of a 16-year-old and you tell them to be very careful, don't engage in sex, the message TV is giving them is that that's not relevant, we're not talking about that," Kunkel says. ''Kids can get deluded into thinking that pregnancy, AIDS, or [sexually transmitted diseases] don't happen because they rarely happen on TV."

Daniel Weiss, a senior analyst for media and sexuality at the advocacy group Focus on the Family Action, in Colorado, said Congress should consider legislation to harness Hollywood. ''Industries typically don't volunteer to clean up. It takes enforcement," he says. ''We're going to need stronger regulations or things will only get worse.

''Sexual activity doesn't even involve love anymore. Instead, sex on TV is treated about as casually as choosing what ring tone you want on your cellphone. If that's where society is going, I think we're in for a world of hurt."

Sheryl Boris-Schacter, a Lesley University professor of education, has learned how to handle mature TV with her teens. Four years ago, she was stunned when she walked in on her 14-year-old son as he was watching ''Sex and the City" on HBO.

''I was incredibly uncomfortable. They were talking about all aspects of sex, and it was definitely geared toward adults," she says. Rather than censor him, which she opposes, Boris-Schacter watched the show with him and talked about it.

''Once I didn't say, 'Oh, my God, you can't watch that' and instead popped myself down during some of these explicit sex scenes, his interest waned."

Now Boris-Schacter, who lives in Newton, watches the WB drama ''Gilmore Girls" each week with her 14-year-old daughter, Tess. ''If sex can lead to character development and it fits in with the story line, and it's a real reflection of how things are, I think it's worthwhile," Boris-Schacter says.

Her daughter gives a thumbs-up to ''Gilmore Girls," which she calls ''realistic."

''One character dates a person for two years and doesn't lose her virginity until she's 19," says Tess, a freshman at Newton South High School. ''If it didn't show those images, it wouldn't be real and probably not as interesting."

Suzanne Ryan can be reached at sryan@globe.com