Abstract

Objectives: Literature has shown the relationship between the use of harmful media and sexual behaviors among adolescents. Laws and regulations of violent and sexual mass media are getting stricter, but young children reported that they were still accessible to these harmful materials. It might be due to the development of new techniques in media delivery and new trends of game addict among Korean adolescents. Since there were very few studies on recent harmful media available to young children, the authors explore the usability of harmful media and identify related factors that can predict adolescent sexual attitudes and activities. Methods: This study was conducted secondary analysis using the internal data that were drawn from National Youth Committee's survey of adolescent harmful environment in 2007. The self-reported questionnaires were administered to 13,721 adolescents who were randomly selected based on strata of geography, school, and gender. Results: Adolescents accessed mostly to NC-19(No Children under 19) TV programs(35.8%) and AO(Adult Only) games(35.5%). Most of them reported that they did not have difficulty in the contact of these harmful media. The factors that can predict adolescent sexual intercourse are male adolescents, attending high school, not being satisfied with family life and school, contact with phone-advertising of sex, AO games and other online games, viewing adult videos, or reading adult books. Conclusions: When sex education is designed, an instructor considers not only students' demographic characteristics but also the strategies to deter the use of harmful media especially for game materials.

Keywords

• Adolescents;
• Harmful media;
• Sexual behavior