Youths are influenced by films because they think that it is related to their age group.[break] Irrespective of the contents, teenagers tend to put into practice whatever they see in films because of immaturity. And, falling in love and having sex has developed into very common imitation among youths.
Uttara Vaidya, 44, a mother, said that youngsters behavior totally depends on the environment they grow, what they see and what they listen to. "Irrational movies or teleserials, which are telecasted by irresponsible movie makers for commercial purposes should be banned," lamented Vaidya.
These days the adolescents who don´t know about contraceptive devices are also having physical relationship with their loved ones. According to the research "2001 NEP: A Survey of Teenagers in Nepal", an overwhelming majority, 92 percent of teenagers, heard of HIV/AIDS but only 74 percent of teenagers knew that they should use contraceptive devices while having sex.
Also, there are many youngsters who are regretting having made wrong decisions at their immature stage. Sujata Lamichhane (name changed), a girl of 18, confesses the ´first breakthrough´ of her life, with coyness in her tone. She had her first physical relation a couple of months back with someone belonging specially to her. But, she confides that it was due to highly exaggerated TV programs she watched, she felt kind of compelled to give sex a try.
Handling well her shyness and hesitation she says, "Whenever I saw couples being locked in a passionate embrace, I would put myself in that place. That was so tempting and I thought that should have been thrilling. That was the temptation too hard to resist. I couldn´t wait to have that exhilarating experience."
Love, to her, was somehow programmed as a game of physicality - that was how so-called civilized media presented love. "My utmost desire to feel someone to the extent of terrible intimacy was growing with the ascending of time," says Sujata, "And at one point my desire was turned into consummation."
Similar was the case with Manjeeta Baral (name changed), a 21-year-old girl, who is pursuing her bachelor course currently. For Baral her sexual intercourse was ´work of accident´. She doesn´t have any blames to assign on media. She says it was the situation or the environment that led her to give in to her mortal desire.
Sujata and Manjeeta represent a host of youngsters who have gone beyond social taboos and have already had their sexual desire gratified.
If we ask psychiatrists and psychologists what they have to say in this respect, majority of them take TV as a tool of Social Learning Theory (SLT) and come to an agreeable point that "TV has a terrible effect on its viewers." They opine that TV assists the audience to learn new behavior and other things through observation of the social factors in their environment. They stress on the role of TV programs as an effective means for sex education, pointing out the fact that highly colored sexual pictures in unnecessary context might have social, cultural and psychological degradation in youths.
Psychiatrist Ravi Shakya associated with Patan Mental Hospital strongly opposes high exposure of TV programs that have sexual scenes or acts. "Since TV programs have a remarkable influence upon the youngsters, such programs might mislead them to imitate the scenes, finally leading to experiment. Bringing the reference of European and American students committing massacre, he exclaims, "This is because of the repeated scenes of violence and killings on TV programs."
Shakya says that premature sex can have life-long psychological effects such as depression, anxiety, personality disorder, apathy toward society, inability to trust other people, and love for loneliness.
Before this trend becomes an integral social phenomenon, there should be total ban on the programs and scenes that provoke youngsters to opt for sexual experiments, says Shakya.
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