Teenagers who watch racy TV 'more likely to get pregnant'

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Young people who watched shows such as Sex And The City and Friends were twice as likely to become pregnant over the next three years as those who watched few such programmes, the US study found.

Previous research by some of the same scientists, at the Rand Corporation think tank, had already found that watching a lot of sex on TV can influence teenagers to have sex at an earlier age.

The new report's lead author, behavioural scientist Anita Chandra, said shows that only highlight the positive aspects of sexual behaviour without the risks can lead teenagers to have unprotected sex "before they're ready to make responsible and informed decisions".

In the study, released today in the November issue of Pediatrics, researchers quizzed 2,003 girls and boys aged 12 to 17 about their TV viewing habits in 2001.

Teenagers were re-interviewed twice, the last time in 2004, and asked about pregnancy. Among girls, 58 became pregnant during the follow-up, and among boys, 33 said they had got a girl pregnant.

Participants were asked how often they watched any of more than 20 TV shows with lots of sexual content. Pregnancies were twice as common among those who said they watched such shows regularly.

US teenage pregnancies were on a 15-year decline until a three per cent rise in 2006, according to the latest data. Experts think that could be a statistical blip.