TV Ethics

For better or for worse, legal and medical dramas on television continue to be one of the most culturally significant venues for public debate about important ethical and moral issues. I find the remarkably timely and insightful "ripped from the headlines" storylines of the Law & Order family of shows especially engaging.

Last night NBC ran a rerun of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit that raised some interesting issues relevant to youth. The episode, “Influenced”, focuses on a high school girl who claims to be raped by two of her male friends in the school bathroom. It turns out that she actually invited them for the rendezvous so that she could loose her virginity in order to date (and have sex with) an older boy who only “hooks up” with non-virgins.

In the process of their investigation, the detectives discover a teen culture saturated with casual sex. A video produced by the high school students reveals that many of the teens are having sex as just another form of entertainment, a way to spend time at parties or between turns playing video games. In fact, the students had developed a kind of game of their own, with “players” receiving points for having sex, more points being awarded for multiple partners and public locations.

All of this raises some interesting questions about and for teen culture:

• How prevalent is this kind of casual sex among teens today? Is it really as common and widespread as depicted in this show?
• What does sex mean for teens today? Is it purely physical gratification? What connection, if any, is there to committed relationships?
• How much pressure do teens feel to have sex?
• How early does this kind of behavior and pressure begin?
• And of course, the age old question: at what age and under what circumstances is it appropriate and healthy to engage in sexual relationships?

As if this wasn’t enough for a good discussion, the episode, in classic Law & Order fashion, took a twist and went in a completely different direction. It turns out that the girl in question was diagnosed with bipolar disorder the year before and was prescribed medication to help her regulate her illness. Believing that she was cured (the medications were actually working) and under the influence of a rock star with an anti-psychiatric drugs agenda, she goes off her medication and runs her car off the road, seriously injuring several pedestrians and killing another young girl.

The trial and the remainder of the episode then became a debate about the use of psychiatric drugs in children and youth. The questions raised by this element of the episode were equally compelling:

• How widespread is mental illness among our population? Among teens?
• Have we moved beyond the negative stigmas associated with mental illness in the past? If not, how can we?
• Is it safe and responsible to medicate our children with drugs when we don’t fully understand how they work?
• Are the side-effects of such drugs a reasonable price to pay for the benefits?
• Are we overmedicating our kids? Does every kid with a short attention span have ADHD? Are we doing more harm than good by medicating these children?

These are all great questions, questions that should be discussed among teens and families. While there is certainly a lot of garbage on TV, there are also some diamonds in the rough that should be watched and talked about. Episodes like this one are good examples of how entertaining television can also prompt important conversations.