In recent decades there has been considerable research on the effects of television on attitudes and behavior of young people. Most of this research was government sponsored and focused on violence and aggression. A 1982 National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) summary report (NIMH, 1982) concluded that violence on television does lead to violence among youth. The report further stated "children learn from watching television and what they learn depends on what they watch" (p. 51). These conclusions were reiterated and expanded in a recent American Psychological Association task force report titled, Big world, small screen: The role of television in American society (Huston et al., 1992). One of the themes of this report was that relatively powerless subgroups such as "children and institutionalized individuals are especially vulnerable because they sometimes lack the intellectual and social skills needed to evaluate and resist televised messages" (p. 3).

If television viewing can cultivate a slanted world view and influence several behavioral domains, as has been amply demonstrated (Huston et al., 1992), then one would also expect that television may affect sexual learning. Although there has been much speculation and debate, there is a lack of focused research to support or refute this contention. Some related research lends support to the contention that television may influence sexual learning. For example, Louis Harris & Associates (1987) found that the majority (64%) of adults in the U.S. believe that television encourages teenagers to initiate sexual activity. Further, a study of 1,043 adolescents found that they considered television to be their greatest source of pressure to become sexually active (Howard, 1985). A review of various studies indicated that media have increased in importance as a source of sexual knowledge for youth over the past few decades (Darling & Hicks, 1982).