Advocacy group’s report says TV pairs teen girl characters, sexual exploitation for laughs

LOS ANGELES, Calif. – An advocacy group says teenage female characters are sexual fodder for network TV series, especially comedies.

According to the Parents Television Council study released Tuesday, the likelihood that a scene would include sexual exploitation increased when a teen girl was involved.

The odds also increased that the scene would be played for laughs: Young female characters were more likely to be the target of sexually exploitive jokes than adult women, 43 per cent as compared to 33 per cent, the report found.

Researchers studied more than 200 sitcom and drama episodes that aired during four weeks in 2011 and 2012 on the major broadcast networks.

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