It is difficult for most children to not become habituated at the idea of sex. Every time the television is turned on, there stands some scantily clad model, trying to sell spark plugs or soda. Media can be important educators of sex, but it can also do the complete opposite and steer adolescents toward the wrong ideas about sex. About one third of all prime time shows that are geared towards adolescents use sexuality as its common topic. For most of these shows, the number of premarital and extramarital sex outnumbers sex between spouses. Even more startling, depictions of sexual activity have increased 103% over the course of five years (Chapin, 3). The media has an enormous impact on an adolescent’s sexual attitude and behavior. “Adolescents who watch ‘sexy’ [television] are more likely to have had sexual intercourse in the past year” (Chapin 5). Children spend a quarter of their free time watching television (University of Michigan, 1998). That is a considerable amount of time to watch sexually saturated shows. It is for these reasons that sex education is emphasized at such an early age. There is no purpose for sex education if it is going to be introduced in the later parts of a child’s development.

Sex education will have very little impact on children or adolescents who have already engaged in sexual activity (AGI 122). It appears that the only affective way in preventing unsafe sexual activities is to inform adolescents early on the dangers of risky sexual behavior before they have engaged in it, usually in the preadolescent stages. Sex education does not destroy a child’s innocence; it merely serves to inform the child of the possible choices or the consequences that may await them. It may heighten a child’s curiosity on the subject, but at the very least the child will have the ability to make a choice based on knowledge. If parents feel that early sex education will traumatize a child and drop t

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