Sexual exploitation of girls now TV 'humor'

The sexual exploitation of teenage girls is becoming a joke for television shows.

A new study released by the Parents Television Council found that girls are more likely than adult women to be shown in sexually exploitative scenes on television, and when girls are involved, the scene is more likely to be shown as humorous.

PTC said 33 percent of scripted episodes that aired during the study period contained sexually exploitative content, and the likelihood it would be considered humorous rose to 43 percent when it involved girls.

"Today's report is intended to shed light on a new and very troubling trend we're seeing," Tim Winter, PTC's president, said in a conference call July 9. "There's a growing amount of primetime television programming that is sexually exploitative, and much of that content is being used as a punch line to a joke."

Among the study's findings.... Read more