“Won’t somebody please think of the children!?” The UK government seems to be using this catchphrase from The Simpsons as the basis for its proposed new pornography laws.

For all its problems, pornography has the potential to allow people to explore sexuality in a way that current sex education does not.

Few people would doubt that sex is ubiquitous in media – whether movies, television, music or books – and that teens today have unprecedented access to all of it.

Despite the common assumptions about sex in the media and its alleged effects on teens, the evidence behind the link is weak.

There are numerous theories that discuss how individuals and media interact. However, many older media effects theories didn’t consider why people were drawn to media, how they processed it, or what they hoped to get from it.

Newer models of media use suggest that it is the individuals who consume media, not the media itself, who are the driving agents of behavior.

Parents can rest a bit easier since the evidence suggests that media isn’t a primary driver of teen sexuality.