Volunteer Opportunities Teen Integrity is looking for students who would be willing to spread the word of the benefits of waiting to have sex till marriage. Some examples of basic tasks would include: Meeting periodically at Teen Integrity’s office. Contributing articles for Teen Integrity’s newsletters Offering to be a youth spokesperson on behalf of Teen Integrity (Classrooms and youth groups) Help host focus groups Administration help If you are interested please call Teen Integrity @ 714.972.8109 Teens Speak Out Teen Integrity is excited to announce their Teens Speak Out essay contest!  We are calling for entries from California teens starting now through October 1st, 2007.  The winner will be chosen and given a scholarship to go towards college tuition and their essay will be used in Teen Integrity documents and newsletters. California teens, ages 13-18, are requested to compose an essay on the following topic:  “How would you spread the abstinence message among your peers?”  Essays should be focused on the physical, emotional, and social benefits of abstinence.

When it comes to sex, television, movies, and Internet tend to portray the glamorous side, largely ignoring consequences, such as unplanned pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases and heartache. Many youth are influenced by television an Internet for their information on sexuality; the consequences of unreal portrayals can be devastating.

• Teenagers watch from five and a half to eight hours of TV every weekday.
• By the time they graduate from high school, American teenagers will have spent 15,000 hours in front of the TV and only 11,000 hours in formal classroom instruction.
• American adolescents view nearly 14,000 instances of sexual material on television each year.
• In all program categories, unmarried heterosexual couples engage in sexual intercourse from four to eight times more frequently than married men and women. Women seldom get pregnant or contract sexually transmitted diseases.
• Results from a study in 1987 found that afternoon soap operas contained 35 instances of sexual content per hour, or more than one instance every two minutes.
• High school girls who saw 15 commercials that emphasized sex appeal and/or physical attractiveness were more likely than girls who saw a set of neutral commercials to say that beauty characteristics were more important for them to feel good about themselves and to be popular with men.
• Male college students who watched a show featuring glamorous women rated pictures of potential dates as less attractive than those who had not viewed the program.
• College students who were exposed to about five hours of sexually explicit films over six weeks were more likely than the control group to express increased callousness towards women and trivialize rape as a criminal offense.
• High school-aged heavy viewers of daytime soap operas were far more likely than light or non-viewers to overestimate the number of societal occurrences of illegitimate pregnancies and the occurrences of rape.
• A study of almost 400 junior high students found that those who watched a greater amount of "sexy" television were more likely than light viewers to have become sexually active during the year prior to the survey.
• Adolescents reported that television is equally or more encouraging about sex than either their best female or best male friend.
• Research found that college females who were heavy viewers of sexually suggestive music videos on MTV had more permissive attitudes about sex than did light viewers.
• Adolescents who were shown a set of 10 music videos were more likely to find premarital sex acceptable than a comparison group who did not see the videos.
• In action and adventure shows, sexual behavior is often associated with violence or a display of power and is rarely depicted in the context of a loving or committed marriage relationship or as an expression of mutual affection.

Source: Alan Guttmacher Institute, 1996.