Should parents be concerned about the amount of sex on television?

Parents have always been concerned about the impact that movies and television have on their children. In today's generation, younger kids have more access than ever to a variety of television shows and movies, and when sex is shown, exactly how much of an influence does it have on children or any viewer for that matter?

This year on Fall television, some of the most popular shows have angered parents from their explicit content. A recent episode of Sons of Anarchy, which is rated TV-MA by TV Parental Guidelines and airs at 10:00 PM, caused an uproar when the opening scene showed the sex lives of various characters on the show in what the show creators called a "f*cktage." To get a better understand by seeing some images of the opening scene from the Sons of Anarchy episode called "Faith and Despondency," check out a review from TV.com, although be warned that some of the images are graphic and include quite a few bare butts.

After the episode aired, the Parents Television Council expressed their disgust. “It’s official: In order to watch cable news, ESPN, Disney or the History Channel, every family in America must now also pay for pornography on FX. Last week’s episode of ‘Sons of Anarchy’ opened with the most sexually explicit content we’ve ever seen on basic cable, content normally found on premium subscription networks like HBO or Showtime,” PTC President Tim Winter said in a press release. The PTC has requested Congress to consider legislature that would allow families to choose which cable networks they want to purchase.

Winter and the Parents Television Council surely have a point. Parents have absolutely every right to be concerned about what their children watch on television. Kids with higher exposure to television were twice as likely to engage in sexual intercourse compared to kids with loser exposure to television, according to a 2004 study by RAND.

I think that the Parents Television Council should consider other alternatives besides calling on Congress and the FCC to make a change. Television shows like Sons of Anarchy are clearly targeted at older audiences and the TV-MA rating appears before the show starts and after every commercial break. If the late hour start time still doesn't appease parents, they can always look into parental controls and better yet, have a conversation with their children about the types of television they should be watching.

The Parents Television Council was outraged at the completely natural act of sex shown on Sons of Anarchy when completely unnatural acts of murder are displayed nearly every episode. In that very same episode, a man has his eye ripped out of his socket before being shot in the head after his associates are gunned down, yet I did not see the Parents Television Council acknowledge that at all in their press release.

Should parents be concerned about the amount of sex on television? I believe they should, but if that's the case, the PTC and concerned parents alike should also share that same passion and concern for violence on television. It's clear that witnessing sex and violence on television does have an impact on children which makes it all the more important for parents to engage their children in conversations about life and what is and is not appropriate to watch in their household.