Talking Dirty

Abstract
Television is often blamed for making sexual knowledge available to children, and thereby for promoting `inappropriate' attitudes and behaviour. This article draws on data gathered as part of a larger research project about the changing nature of the child television audience. It considers how children (aged 6-7 and 10-11) interpret and respond to the representations of sexual behaviour they encounter on television, for example in genres such as soap operas and dating game shows; and how they define what is appropriate, both for themselves and for children in general. Using discourse analysis, the article examines how children's discussions of these issues serve as a form of `identity work', through which they define what it means to be a child.

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