Teen Pregnancy Prevention: Now It Seems Real

Everywhere where you look, there are advertisements. The majority of them are advertising sex in one way or another. All of these gorgeous women and shirtless men pressed up against one another. But up until recently, this is all there was. Sex. But then what? There weren’t any posters showing a teenager with a baby.

That’s where MTV’s Teen Mom and other similar shows come in. Although they often glorify the teen mom lifestyle, they also show the struggles of paying for their baby, fighting with the father etc. It also makes the possibility of having a baby seem very real and not just like a scare tactic parents use.

These shows have also gotten so much publicity from adults that many parents have decided it was time to have the sex talk with their kids. Even just having a parent there to answer any questions can help stop teen pregnancy. Parents can talk to their kids about ways to have sex in a safe way that might not result in the consequences we are so used to seeing on TV.

Although many criticize Teen Mom, 16 and Pregnant, The Secret Life of the American Teenager and other shows for making having a baby seem fun, I think they do the opposite. They make it seem real. Seeing someone your age go through the struggles of being a parent makes being a teen mom seem like something to avoid. All the media coverage of teenage pregnancies also plays its part in making sure teens know how to have safe sex as well. I think before TV shows about teenage pregnancies existed, consequences from sex didn’t seem real. But now, they seem all too real for most.