Letter: Less sex, please

Sir: Deborah Orr is right to complain about the degree to which our TV and tabloids focus on sexual themes, and the effects of exposure to this on children (Comment, 7 September).

I have found in discussions with young people about sexual morality that the conversation invariably turns quickly to the characters of TV soaps. These characters are also frequently featured in the tabloids as if they were real people. Of course this need not be all bad. These scripts could be, and sometimes are, positively and constructively educational. But the general effect is to glamorise the outrageous, to present as normal what is extreme, and to break protective taboos.

Some of the children I see in primary schools have been sexualised to a degree that was very rare 25 years ago. I have no doubt that a significant proportion of the blame for the growing rate of school-age sexual activity can be laid at the door of TV serials and the very distorted image their twisted mirror portrays.

The Rev STEPHEN LEEKE

Warboys, Cambridgeshire