Pediatricians should 'tune in' to patients' media habits

Teen-agers rank media as their second leading source of information about sex, indicating a need for pediatricians to help patients and parents identify inappropriate sexual images portrayed in the media, according to a revised AAP Policy Statement.

"If the media is that important to how they (adolescents) learn about sex, then pediatricians need to recognize that and talk to their patients about how sex images are portrayed in the media as being unrealistic without consequences," said Miriam Bar-on, M.D., FAAP, chair of the AAP Committee on Public Education.

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