This story was published in print in December 2023.
Content Warning: This story contains language that pertains to child sex trafficking and sexual exploitation.
Across TV and film, some young characters develop their first crushes and navigate challenging friendships, while others engage in risky activities like drug abuse and sexual relationships. Realistic or not, these depictions pose the risk of glamorizing overly mature behavior in children.
Hypersexualization isn’t new in the media. In an attempt to touch on serious issues that real teenagers face, filmmakers and showrunners often position young characters in sexual and mature situations. Now-common sexualized depictions of children have desensitized viewers, deflating any sense of urgency towards the issue of child sexualization in media, argues Amy Jussel, founder of Shaping Youth, a nonprofit dedicated to using the media to protect children’s health and wellness.
Hollywood filmmakers and showrunners often employ adult actors to play teenage characters, enabling writers to place young characters in explicit scenes without creating legal trouble. Others use actual children to portray overtly sexual scenes. Actresses such as Megan Fox and Brooke Shields have recently shared the damaging experiences they had as child actors in Hollywood. In the documentary Pretty Baby, Shields explains that, as a child actress and model, she lacked control of her career because the film industry constantly pushed her into inappropriate roles.
“Media in Society” teacher Omari James said that there is validity to films and shows aiming to depict teens in mature scenarios to introduce a young audience to authentic expressions of sexuality. However, many shows go beyond presenting sexual identities and incorporating sexual themes, he said, and instead craft situations where sexualization is unnecessary or exaggerated.
“There’s a big push towards allowing teenagers to explore their sexual identities and to see that it’s acceptable for them to have sexual identities at their age,” James said. “But at the same time, there are disturbing signs where media goes past a healthy representation towards a distressing normalization.”
Hit HBO teen drama “Euphoria” follows the life of Rue, a teenager struggling with drug addiction and going through several stints in rehab.
As the show progresses, other teenage characters emerge with their own problems: Maddy is trapped in an on-and-off relationship with her physically and sexually abusive boyfriend; Kat spirals into producing online sexual content after a male classmate posts a sexual video of her; Cassie’s need for romantic validation causes her to enter dangerous and unhealthy relationships.
“Euphoria” characters often find themselves in problematic and even illegal situations while attempting to overcome their issues. Jules, a 17-year-old transgender girl, engages in sexual relationships with adult men to affirm her femininity. Kat’s decision to “empower” herself by becoming a camgirl creates the impression that minors can use sex as a tool to gain control over their bodies, a message that can have detrimental impacts on young viewers. While many critics voice concerns about the show’s style and subject matter, a teenage audience continues to engage with the show — HBO reported that episodes of “Euphoria”’s second season averaged 16.3 million views each.
As “Euphoria” continues to expose young viewers to hypersexualized situations, the show unwittingly demonstrates how to replicate the behavior. In a milestone study published by the National Institutes of Health in 2004, researchers conducted a year-long survey in which they compared the shows teens watched with any self-reported changes in sexual behavior. The survey found that those adolescents who watched more TV programming with sexual content engaged in increased sexual activities, proving a correlational relationship between mature content in media and mature behavior.
Teenagers subconsciously internalize media depictions of teenagers as “normal” and base their perceptions of teenage life on characters on the screen, said sophomore Emma Benaissa.
“It makes us think that we have to dress or act a certain way to meet the standards of what media is putting out,” Benaissa said. “If teenage characters sexualize or expose themselves, teens will think, ‘I need to do that to fit in.’”
Alongside “Euphoria,” the Netflix film “Cuties” has also triggered conversations about depictions of child sexuality. The French film, which features child actors between 11 and 14 years old, has seen strong backlash, with parent groups across the globe condemning the show. The plot centers around Amy, a girl who rebels against her Islamic faith by joining a dance group with neighborhood kids. The group gains online popularity and succeeds in dance competitions by incorporating revealing costumes and suggestive dance moves into their performances.
These media depictions provide examples of young people being rewarded for sexual behavior, potentially incentivizing teens to mimic what they see in the shows they watch. According to Jussel, adolescents who copy the mature on-screen behavior are at a larger risk of falling into exploitation schemes.
“When teens are vulnerable and think this character is getting attention when she sexualizes herself, and they are not getting enough attention at home or don’t feel loved, that’s when predators get them sucked into exploitation,” Jussel said.
Teenagers who aim to replicate the sexual behavior of their television counterparts may turn to social media platforms to share pictures and videos of themselves sexualized. This can attract online predators, who can attempt to elicit more explicit sexual content by forming emotional connections with children through social media platforms. Even if social media users post images on private accounts, they ultimately cannot control who sees the content, not to mention the possibility that followers or hackers may leak private content. Online predators can also take advantage of children and teens through “sextortion” — the practice of tricking someone into sending sexually compromising material and then demanding further content or compensation to keep the content secret.
The Internet Watch Foundation found that reported cases of sextortion have increased by 257% from 2022 to 2023.
Studies have also shown that media depictions of children can warp adults’ perceptions of youth. In a 2010 study from the American Psychological Association aiming to articulate the exact harms of child pornography, researchers showed some participants adult pornography and others “barely legal” pornography, in which younger-looking models attempted to appear “child-like” as they engaged in sexual acts. The researchers found that participants who viewed the “barely legal” pornography ultimately built a stronger mental connection between nonsexual images of children and words related to sex, like “arousing” and “sexy,” when compared to the group who viewed adult pornography. The report on the study suggested that sexualized portrayals of children could lead viewers to associate children with sex even when children are not in sexual situations.
The development of predatory thinking correlates with an increase in cases of child sex trafficking across the globe. A 2020 report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime found that the number of children involved in human trafficking cases had tripled since 2005. The APA report argued that the sexualization of children contributes to trafficking, as it forges a market for sexual contact and content involving children.
Contrary to the common myth that human trafficking is only a problem in high-crime or economically unstable regions, trafficking transpires just as often in wealthy suburban and urban communities. The Maryland Human Trafficking Task Force refers to the state as a “hotspot” for human trafficking, as Interstate 95 has become a heavily traveled corridor for traffickers along the East Coast.
Not all depictions of young people in mature situations provide negative examples to young viewers. There are appropriate ways to introduce mature concepts to young audiences through media, James said. Media outlets can produce content that portrays teenagers in realistic sexual scenarios as a way to teach adolescents the impacts of engaging in such actions at a young age. In that case, consuming mature content involving young people can benefit teenagers, James said.
“There’s a difference between representation of a difficult topic and glorification or romanticization of a difficult topic,” James said. “When creating a piece of art, we have to constantly remember that that difference exists, and constantly challenge ourselves about where we’re falling in that differential and why.”
Netflix’s coming-of-age drama “Never Have I Ever” aligns with the influence-conscious depictions viewers like James are looking for. Teenage characters in the show encounter mature themes as they form intimate relationships, fall victim to sexual peer pressure and engage in hook-up culture. However, “Never Have I Ever” develops these concepts without glorifying overly sexual or mature behavior in young people, allowing audiences to form deeper connections with the characters and plots without the risks that glorification of child sexualization can bring.
As teenagers develop in a society that sexualizes them in the media, viewers must push back for a genuine representation of youth, said Jussel.
“Kids need to be able to have an open dialogue and authentic role models,” Jussel said. “They need to see what healthy sexuality looks like in the media they consume.”
Magazines and advertisements contribute to this trend by depicting children in sexualized situations to increase brand recognition. Balenciaga’s 2022 Gift Shop campaign portrayed six child models posing with teddy bears dressed in BDSM gear. Fashion Nova’s children’s clothing line outfitted ad models, some as young as three years old, in miniskirts and skin-tight dresses.
Even though conversations surrounding the brands’ choices are largely critical, the companies still receive free publicity from online controversy, ultimately increasing brand awareness and never suffering enough blowback to offset the risk.
With Hollywood and the advertising world showing minimal awareness of the consequences of child sexualization, there is also a growing public conversation about how and when governments are responsible for holding media entities, specifically social media companies, accountable for their influence on teen viewers.
In October 2023, 41 state governments alleged in a lawsuit that Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta had knowingly damaged teenage mental health by incorporating addictive features and predatory algorithms. Many young people lack critical media literacy skills, said Jussel, so they can’t separate themselves from their social media. personas and end up making unhealthy comparisons between themselves and media depictions of teenagers.
According to Media Literacy Now, a teen nonprofit advocacy group that supports media literacy in education in schools, 55% of students report feeling unconfident in their media literacy skills. Only three US states require media literacy education in K-12 classrooms, but several have introduced legislation that will integrate media literacy into school curricula in the coming years.
Understanding media literacy enables children to think critically about online content, distinguish between accurate and inaccurate information and be responsible for their own online presence, according to the organization. Media literacy education can empower children to separate themselves from the hypersexualized depictions of child characters, furthering young people’s ability to pressure all media, from the entertainment industry or otherwise, to produce genuine and authentic representations of youth.
“We have to teach kids these skills to get kids to take their power back,” Jussel said. “Don’t let the media define you before you can define yourself.”
