Alcohol consumption among adolescents remains at unacceptably high levels. More than 80 percent of U.S. high school students have tried alcohol; in 1997, more than 31 percent of 12th graders, 25 percent of 10th graders, and 14 percent of 8th graders claimed to have consumed five or more alcoholic drinks in the preceding 2 weeks. Perhaps most disturbing, among 12- to 17-year-olds who exhibit no other problem behaviors, those who have used marijuana, alcohol, or cigarettes in the past month are 17 times more likely to consume illegal drugs such as cocaine, heroin, or LSD than those who have not used these d

Since March, when the FCC issued a clarification of its regulations regarding indecency on radio, the agency has been on the warpath against smut. But it seems as if the agency is actually on a mission against rap music. KKMG isn’t the first station to be fined for playing rap — far from it, in fact: WSUC-FM, Cortland, N.Y., WLLD-FM, Holmes Beach, Fla., and WZEE-FM, Madison, Wis., are three more examples — but it is the first to be fined for playing an edited song. In its ruling against the station last week, the FCC said that even though every profanity had been excised from the song, it still contained references to sex that were "patently offensive as measured by contemporary community standards."

Popular music is the backdrop for much of adolescent life. Teenagers name music listening as their most preferred non-school activity. Moreover, when attention is paid to "background" listening (listening while working, doing homework, driving, etc.), estimates of adolescents’ exposure to music average as high as 4 to 6 hours daily. Recording industry figures indicate that 87 percent of all Rock music sales, 65 percent of Hot-100, 90 percent of R&B and Rap, and 64 percent of Country-Western are accounted for by people age 24 and under.

Take the case of KBOO, a community radio station in Portland, Oregon. One evening, a DJ played a song by poet Sarah Jones and DJ Vadim entitled "Your Revolution." The song, a send-up of the Gil Scott-Heron classic "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" — here it’s "will not take place between these thighs" — condemns rappers for demanding an equal society for themselves, yet still filling their music with misogynistic lyrics. The song contains lyrics such as "Your revolution will not find me in the back seat of a jeep … doing it and doing it and doing it well. Think I’m going to put it in my mouth just because you make a few bucks? Please, brother, please."

Reading through the commission’s 70-page tome (see it for yourself at www.FTC.gov), you might wonder if the agency read its own data findings before writing the report. Even with the slightest scrutiny, some of the FTC’s arguments simply don’t hold water.

Movies and music are extremely popular among adolescents (see Appendix A). Although teens make up only 16 percent of the U.S. population, they account for 26 percent of all movie admissions. Ninety percent of 12- to 20-year-olds report going to movies at least occasionally, and their viewing is not limited to theaters. Sixty-three percent of 9- to 17-year-olds watch at least one rented video per week. Watching videos is one of America’s favorite leisure time ac

Some topics in this essay:
, According FTC, Bureau KBOO, President Clinton, Request Live, Supreme Court, Madison Wis, Revolution Televised, FTC Interestingly, Capitol Hill, music industry, age 17, sarah jones dj, jones dj vadim, own data, audience age, fined playing, patently offensive, doing doing, radio station, audience age 17, school students tried, sexual excretory, cocaine heroin,