At Moran’s, things were more civilized. I remember one time when he himself was in a bedroom, down on his knees giving oral sex to a girl, when some noisy people came down the hall, and he called out to them in a booming voice, “If you want to laugh and joke and whatever, the place to do that is the library, but this room is my church, and I am at worship.” And back he went to his prayers. – William Becker, on George Plimpton

If only teenagers followed such reasoning. Instead, they miss the point and have sex for the wrong reasons. In fact, teenagers who watch a lot of television featuring flirting, necking, discussion of sex and sex scenes are much more likely than their peers to get pregnant or get a partner pregnant, according to the first study to directly link steamy programming to teen pregnancy. There is rising concern about teen pregnancy rates, which after decades of decline may have started inching up again, fueling an intense debate about what factors are to blame. In particular, researchers still are not sure whether kids who are more interested in sex watch more programs involving sex.

Apparently, the amount of sexual content on television has doubled in the past few years, although I have no clue how such information can be accurately measured. Shows like Gossip Girl do, in fact, glamorize sex, and neglect its darker side of STDs and pregnancy, but I feel that teens who watch such programs are already interested sex.

What to do about this predicament? The researchers recommended that parents spend more time monitoring what their children watch and discussing what they see, including pointing out the possible negative consequences of early sexual activity. They also feel that programmers should also include more-realistic portrayals of the risks of sex, such as sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy, the researchers said. I couldn’t agree more. These parents, born in the mid-late 60’s lack the conservative upbringing so common just a decade earlier. They have, in turn, raised their children on weaker ideals that cannot withstand the current barrage of sex on television. If I were currently a parent, I would sit down and describe sex in graphic detail. If characters on the show got hot and heavy, I would explain the situation in an exquisitely disturbing manner. Kids love visualization.

Also, teenage emotions are responding to basic instincts from the lower brain, which awakens the body to its generative capacities. Such impulses searching for instant gratification can easily overwhelm the higher frontal lobes—which impose thoughtful, rational, and conscience-driven restraints on behavior—because, by some quirk of nature, those distinctly human higher cognitive centers don’t fully mature until the early 20s. Parents, like it or not, have no choice but to be their kids’ frontal lobes for a time, and that’s a source of vintage teen turbulence.