By Victoria Bell and Tim Collins For Mailonline
Published: 16:51 BST, 16 April 2019 | Updated: 18:07 BST, 16 April 2019
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Watching TV shows like Empire, Sex Education and 13 Reasons Why could be encouraging teenagers to drink alcohol, have sex and smoke.
Youngsters exposed to combinations of 'risky' behaviour in the media that they watch are more likely to engage in similar behaviour themselves, researchers say.
Experts asked teenagers to watch four categories of clips from the TV show Empire to make their findings.
The team of scientists found that scenes only depicting one risky behaviour, such as sex on its own, were not enough to influence the attitudes of young people.
Combinations of a number of risky behaviours, however, were found to lead to teenagers viewing them more positively.
While the findings were made using Empire as a template, they can be applied to any number of shows that are popular with teens.
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Teen TV shows like Sex Education (pictured) and 13 Reasons Why are exposing young people to a heady combination of alcohol, sex and smoking that's difficult to resist. That's the finding of a team of scientists who looked at the effects portrays of 'risky' behaviours in the media
Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania came to their conclusion by asking more than 300 young people, aged 14 to 17, to view one of four categories of video clips from TV program Empire.
They found that exposure to alcohol and sex in the media in general resulted in more glamorised and positive perceptions of drinking, sex and smoking.
Exposure to the sex only, alcohol only, and no risk videos did not influence any attitudes or norms.
They made the findings by and say the findings apply to any show with these four themes in - such as Netflix's 'Sex Education' and '13 Reasons Why'.
These clips combined alcohol and sex and than a more risk-taking behaviour, smoking, alone.
They
