The Transmission Ways of Social Media Sex Education Content to

Parents and Its Influence on Children’s Education

Peiqi Luo

Meishi Film Academy, Chongqing University, Chongqing, 400000, China

Keywords: Sex Education, Social Media, Parents.

Abstract: This study focuses on the communication mechanism of sex education content under the emerging

background of social media, and the transformation law of parents' multiple roles as information decoder,

knowledge reconstructor and educational decision maker. Through literature analysis, questionnaire survey

and SPSS data analysis, it is found that algorithm recommendation is the main contact channel, while

acquaintance sharing drives efficient transformation. In addition, the study also reveals the contradictory

characteristics of the influence of high-frequency users and the dominance of mothers. The research shows

that building a dual-track collaborative mechanism of intelligent recommendation technology and

acquaintance network communication, realizing accurate content matching through algorithm optimization,

strengthening trust endorsement through social relations, and cooperating with authoritative quality

certification system can systematically solve the transformation obstacles of social media sex education

content in intergenerational communication. It is helpful to bridge the intergenerational gap and upgrade the

family education model digitally.

1 INTRODUCTION

In contemporary society, sex education, as the core

issue of adolescent growth, is undergoing a paradigm

shift from traditional institutions to social media

platforms. With the increasingly accurate algorithm

recommendation mechanism of social media

platform, the communication mode of sex education

content is undergoing structural changes. With the

increasingly accurate algorithm recommendation

mechanism of social media platforms, the

communication mode of sex education content is

undergoing structural changes, as evidenced by

initiatives like the TOUGHYOUTH project initiated

by high school students in Fuzhou, China. Through

online testing, anonymous answering and campus

activities, this student-led program not only attracted

480,000 participants but also inspired cross-city

replication of similar campaigns (Wu & Li, 2022),

demonstrating social media's superior

communication efficiency over traditional classroom

approaches in sexuality education dissemination.

Besides, research shows that sex education on social

media has become common (Döring, 2021). At the

same time, this wave of digital education is quietly

changing the traditional pattern of family education-

when the sexual knowledge on social media is spread

to the audience. Parents also become the recipients of

the information, and at the same time they are the

disseminators of family education. Although the

existing literature focuses on teenagers' direct

reception of content, it generally ignores a key group:

parents. Eccles's "Parents Socialization Model"

points out that parents' media use behavior will affect

their children's cognition through demonstration and

resource provision (Hammer et al., 2021), but the

application of this theory in the field of sex education

still stays at the traditional media level.

Under this background, this study puts forward

the core question: how does the content of social

media sex education break through the

intergenerational barrier and penetrate into the

parents' group? How does this infiltration affect

parents' practice of sex education for their children?

As mentioned above, there have been studies on

the direct impact of multi-focus social media on

teenagers. For example, in the study of TikTok, its

spread highlights the potential of social media as an

informal education channel (Fowler et al., 2022).

However, Lameiras-Fernández M's systematic

review research points out that although the digital

platform can break through the limitations of school

Luo, P.

The Transmission Ways of Social Media Sex Education Content to Parents and Its Inﬂuence on Children’s Education.

DOI: 10.5220/0013991800004916

Paper published under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Public Relations and Media Communication (PRMC 2025), pages 361-368

ISBN: 978-989-758-778-8

361

sex education, there is a risk of information

deviation(Lameiras-Fernández et al., 2021). There

are double blind spots in the existing literature: first,

the role of parents as secondary communication nodes

has been neglected for a long time, and only a few

studies reveal the correlation between parents' media

use and their children's behavior through the media

socialization model; Secondly, the evaluation of

communication effect mostly stays at the teenagers'

end, and fails to touch the complete transmission

chain of "parental reception-knowledge

reconstruction-educational behavior change".

Parents play the triple roles of information

decoder, knowledge reproducer and educational

decision maker in the communication chain of sex

education. Based on the methods of literature review

and questionnaire survey, this study systematically

discusses the cognitive characteristics of parents'

social media sex education content and its influence

on family education. By systematically combing the

relevant literature in recent five years, this paper

focuses on analyzing the path characteristics of social

media sex education communication and the research

gaps of its intergenerational influence. On this basis,

a questionnaire survey was designed, to measure their

social media usage frequency, sexual education

content contact experience and educational behavior

change indicators. Correlation analysis and

regression model construction are conducted by

SPSS, aiming at further research based on the

theoretical framework of literature analysis and

empirical data of questionnaire survey, so as to

provide support for revealing intergenerational

education communication.

The theoretical value of this study lies in

expanding the research dimension of

intergenerational communication in digital education,

and breaking through the research formula that the

existing literature takes teenagers as a single subject.

On the practical level, the research results will help to

design the intervention strategy of "parents-children-

platform", and provide an empirical basis for bridging

the cognitive differences between generations and

optimizing the effectiveness of family sex education.

At the time of social media deeply reconstructs the

pattern of knowledge dissemination, it is of urgent

practical significance to reveal the role change of

parents in the digital education ecology for building a

new model of family education.

Based on the background of the times and

experience reflection, the general problem of the

research topic is: the transmission ways of social

media sex education content to parents and its

influence on children's education.

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 The Necessity of Taking Parents as

the Research Subject of Social

Media Sex Education

Communication

Based on the "parent socialization model" of Eccles,

the paper of Hammer, M. et al examines the

mediating effect of parents' beliefs on students' self-

efficacy indirectly through behaviors (modeling and

providing equipment), and discusses how parents'

beliefs on digital media (such as intrinsic value and

utility value) and behaviors (such as providing

equipment and demonstrating use) affect students'

digital media self-efficacy (Hammer et al., 2021).

Through the questionnaire, the data were analyzed by

SEM, CFA and Bootstrap (95% CI). The researchers

found that parents have a significant positive impact

on the possibility of providing smart phones in terms

of intrinsic value (such as "using digital media is

interesting") and utility value (such as "digital media

is useful for learning"). The study is helpful to the

communication of parents' sex education. The "parent

socialization model" can be used for reference to

analyze how parents influence their children's

cognition through the dissemination of sex education

content (such as sharing articles and discussing

topics), and whether they are willing to apply the

content to their children's education, similar to the

behavior of providing smart phones predicted in the

articles of Hammer, M. and others.

However, Hammer, M. et al’s study focuses on

the ability to use technology, rather than the content

delivery of sex education content from social media

to parents. The paper can only be used as a research

premise, and it is still indispensable to further study

the importance of utilization rate.

Other studies have also pointed out the

importance of parents in sex education. In Joy

Walker’s study, the researchers took British parents

(especially mothers), teenagers as the research objects

(Walker, 2004). Through literature review,

qualitative research, quantitative investigation and

case study, and using multivariate regression analysis

(adjusting the influence of family structure, education

level and other variables on sexual behavior), the

study found that parents' open communication was

related to their children's higher contraceptive use

rate, and the lack of father's participation led to the

lack of sex education for boys. This shows that

parents play an extremely important role in sex

education. Moreover, social media, as the mainstream

PRMC 2025 - International Conference on Public Relations and Media Communication

362

platform in today's society, can play an important role

in how parents master and teach correct and

appropriate sex education content.

In The Characteristics and Relationship of

Parental Sexual Knowledge and Sex Education

Attitude to Young Children, by studying the parents

of young children, the researcher tested the main

effects of gender, age and educational background

through ANOVA (Jin, 2021). Through the parental

knowledge questionnaire (PSK, Cronbach's α=0.790)

and the sex education attitude questionnaire (PSEA,

Cronbach's α=0.864), the main effects of age and

educational background were tested by descriptive

statistics, independent sample T test (gender

difference) and ANOVA. Back testing (Scheffe

method), three-factor analysis of variance (gender×

age× educational background) and correlation

analysis (correlation between sexual knowledge and

attitude towards sex education) show that parents'

sexual knowledge is above average (M=3.36-4.28),

but the score of "child development" dimension is the

lowest (M=3.36), and mothers' sexual knowledge is

significantly higher than fathers' (p = 0). At present,

it is found that parents' sexual knowledge and attitude

are the key prerequisites for the implementation of

sex education, and social media can be used as an

important channel to spread the content of sex

education to parents. This once again confirms the

importance of the content of social media sex

education, that is, the importance of Xin Jin’s study.

And mothers are the main implementers of family sex

education (the conclusion of Xin Jin’s study), so

social media content should be designed for mothers

first. In addition, the PSEA survey shows that parents'

attitudes towards sex education are generally positive

(M=3.65-4.26), but the score of "barriers to sex

education" is the lowest (M=3.65). It can be seen that

parents' conservative attitude towards sex education

needs to break away from traditional ideas through

social media. This shows that social media is of great

help to family sex education.

In addition, like this paper, another researchers

put the main research object of the paper on parents.

To study the influence of parents on their children in

media application (Lee et al., 2022). In Hye Eun Lee

et al’s paper, a questionnaire survey method is used

to analyze the path relationship between parents'

media use, attitudes and parenting styles on children's

media use through Multigroup SEM, and to test the

differences among different subgroups (such as

gender and age). Reliability test (Cronbach's α of each

scale is greater than 0.7, such as parental attitude scale

α=0.85) and descriptive statistics are made. It is found

that parents' media time is positively correlated with

children's media use during the day (β=0.32) and at

night (β=0.28). Although there is no direct study on

the influence of parents' exposure to sex education in

the media on their children, Hye Eun Lee et al ’s study

is helpful to strengthen the understanding of the direct

influence of parents on children in media use, and to

understand the positive attitude of parents is helpful

to study the role of parents in the media

communication of sex education.

2.2 The Importance of Social Media to

the Study of Sex Education

Communication

In the research of Sex Education on TikTok: A

Content Analysis of Themes, the researcher

configured a new account for a hypothetical 15-year-

old user in the United States and uses algorithm

recommendation to obtain videos. The study methods

of data collection, coding and topic induction are

adopted. In data analysis, instead of using complex

analysis, it simply use descriptive statistics to

calculate video theme frequency (such as "female

anatomy" accounting for 31%) and user interaction

data (median: 516,650 times of video viewing, and

some videos exceed 2 million times). Leah R. Fowler,

JD et al’s study found that the content of sex education

on TikTok is different from that in traditional schools

or families, suggesting that medical and educational

practitioners can add supplementary resources, but

they should also pay attention to the accuracy of their

information and its impact on teenagers' health

cognition. Surely, the article can help to understand

the popularity of sex education content on social

media such as Tik Tok. However, it only mainly

focuses on teenagers, which may be helpful to parents'

research. Therefore, it is necessary to further study the

influence of parental sex education on media reception

and education of children combining with Leah R.

Fowler, JD et al’s paper.

María Lameiras-Fernández et al’s article has the

same limitations as the previous paper: the research

subjects are only teenagers[5]. In addition, it is a

literature review. An important point is that although

it was published in recent years, the selected papers

are quite old (2015-2020). The study points out that

school sex education programs have limited effect in

reducing adolescents' risk behaviors, while digital

platforms and blended learning programs show greater

potential but have biased risks, so it is necessary to

combine new technologies and adopt more

comprehensive evaluation and design to enhance their

effectiveness. In María Lameiras-Fernández et al’s

paper, heterogeneous processing, classification

The Transmission Ways of Social Media Sex Education Content to Parents and Its Inﬂuence on Children’s Education

363

analysis, bias evaluation and result stratification are

selected for data analysis. However, the high

heterogeneity leads to the impossibility of meta-

analysis, and the conclusion depends on narrative

synthesis. Therefore, more timely and appropriate data

analysis is still needed. This confirms the importance

of this new research.

As for The Effectiveness of Youtube as an Online

Learning Media, although Rahmatika et al’s article

does not focus on parents as the only subject, it studies

the role of social media represented by YouTube in

learning and gets a positive answer (Rahmatika et al.,

2021). Through qualitative research and interviews,

the researcher draws a conclusion based on Miles and

Huberman model: YouTube is judged as an

"effective" online learning tool. However, there are

still some limitation in the research, such as the small

sample size and lack of diversity, only three teachers

and a bit of parents in a single school. However, it can

still be seen from Rahmatika et al’s paper that the

current research verifies the effectiveness of YouTube

(social media) in knowledge dissemination, which is

consistent with the media attribute of "sex education

content is disseminated through social media".

Therefore, the results contribute to the research

hypothesis of this paper regarding.

Lastly, the study of Runjie Zhang et al focuses on

the parent-child relationship under the family

education model in internet plus, pay attention to the

differences between traditional and new education

models and the transformation strategies (Zhang et al.,

2021). Runjie Zhang et al’s paper compares the

characteristics of traditional family education model

and internet plus model through literature review, and

then puts forward the potential influence of the

Internet on parent-child relationship and the coping

strategies (such as information feedback and

democratic communication) by logical reasoning. It

can be found that the traditional family education

model is obviously limited compared with the internet

acceptors. The article explains the transformation of

parents' education in internet plus era, but it lacks data

support and empirical support, and is only theoretical

advice. However, it can be explained that

intergenerational information transmission depends

on the Internet today, that is, the importance of social

media.

2.3 Conclusion of the Literature

Review

In the past, researchers' studies has first proved that

parents play an indispensable role in sex education for

their children, and also proved that social media is

necessary in intergenerational communication of sex

education.

In addition, previous studies also laid the research

foundation for this paper. Such as proving the

existence of sex education content in social media.

Social media platforms represented by TikTok and

YouTube have become important carriers of sex

education content. For example, on TikTok, the

median number of videos about sex education

reached 516,000 times, and some videos exceeded 2

million times. YouTube has also proved to be an

effective online learning tool, and its interactivity and

accessibility provide a new path for knowledge

popularization. In addition, we can also understand

the influence of parents' media use on their children.

The status quo of parents' sex education: the score of

"children's sexual development" is the lowest

(M=3.36), and the score of "obstacles to sex

education" is low.

Taking this situation as one of the reasons, most

of the previous studies on the combination of sex

education and social media focus on teenagers,

ignoring parents, which are an important part of

family education or media. Thus, the research in this

paper provide evidence of what is currently lacking,

which means the further study is of great value.

3 QUESTIONNAIRE SURVEY

METHOD

3.1 Research Questions

The decomposition problem is as follows:

(1) What social media platform can be seen by

parents of sex education audience?

① What are the commonly used social media

platforms and channels?

② Age distribution of users of various media

platforms (to find parents' preferences)

(2) What are the channels for teenagers' parents to

get in touch with the contents of sex education (seeing

by themselves, sharing with friends, recommending

by teachers, pushing advertisements, etc.)?

①If parents brush it themselves, how often?

·If parents do not take the initiative to search, can

they see it?

·What content users usually like to watch can be

pushed by big data for sex education content?

② What kind of sex education videos will be

shared and the corresponding sharing groups?

(3)The mode of communication of sex education

content preferred by the audience (video, graphic,

interactive)?

PRMC 2025 - International Conference on Public Relations and Media Communication

364

(4) What is the real popularity or browsing

volume of these sex education contents?

(5) What kind of transmission route can bring

more efficient results?

①Which way is more popular?

② Which way is more effective to spread

information?

③ Which way has a higher real audience (eg.

video completion rate)?

(6) Can the content related to sex education seen

by parents on social media be implemented in

children's education?

3.2 Samples of Study

This study is aimed at parents' social media users,

aiming at understanding whether and how parents can

share sex education on social media, and further

exploring whether such content will have an impact

on parents' education outside the media platform, that

is, in real life. Based on this research purpose, the first

restriction of the questionnaire distribution group is

the existence of children, followed by the usual use of

social media platforms. A total of 95 questionnaires

were collected, of which 3 were invalid.

4 RESULT

4.1 Data Analysis in this Study,

Different Data Analysis Methods

Are Used to Analyze Different

Problems

4.1.1 Descriptive Statistic

In order to present the characteristics of data

distribution and describe the basic trend of samples,

this study uses descriptive statistical data analysis

methods. In terms of statistical results (see Table 1),

it can be found that most parents have been exposed

to sex education content on social media, but the

actual application ratio is only about half. Algorithm

push is an important channel for parents to get in

touch with sex education content.

Table 1. Descriptive Statistics of Parents’ Exposure and

Application of Sex Education Content on Social Media

Index Resul

Proportion of contact

with sex education content

82/92 (89.1%)

Actual application ratio 45/92 (48.9%)

Recommend contac

ratio throu

hal

orith

65/82 (79.3%)

Mean value of gende

distribution (male =1,

female =2)

1.457±0.501

Scientific cognitive

mean (1-5 scale)

1.587±0.495

4.1.2 Frequency Analysis and Cross

Comparison

In order to know through what channels the sex

education content learned on social media is more

likely to be applied by parents, this study applied this

quantitative data analysis method . By constructing a

cross table (see Table 2 and Table 3), it is found that

the application rate of sex education content learned

through acquaintance recommendation is higher. At

the same time, through frequency analysis, it can also

be found that high-frequency users of social media

are much more influenced by the content of sex

education in the media than low-frequency users.

Table 2. Cross-Tabulation Analysis of Content Application Rates by Contact Channel and User Frequency.

Grouping

dimension

Key indicators

Channel group

recommended by the

orithm (n=65)

Acquaintance

sharing group

(n=28)

Entirety(n=92)

Conten

application

ratio

Will use conten

educate children.

50.0% 81.0% 48.9%

High frequency

users (3

hours+/da

)

Consider it has a

significant impact

48.7% \- 42.4%

Low frequency

users (< 1

hour/day)

Consider it has a

significant impact

16.7% \- 7.6%

（The results of grouping comparison and chi-square test are as follows）

The Transmission Ways of Social Media Sex Education Content to Parents and Its Inﬂuence on Children’s Education

365

Table 3. Chi-Square Test Results for Group Comparisons

Groupin

comparison

Cramer's V

orithm recommendation vs Acquaintance sharin

application rate 8.762 0.003 0.312

h-frequenc

vs Low-frequenc

use

influence

erception 6.941 0.008 0.285

4.1.3 Correlation Analysis

In order to further explore whether the duration and

contact frequency of social media are positively

related to the influence of educational concepts,

correlation analysis is a necessary means. Through

correlation analysis (see Table 4), it is not difficult to

find that both of them are positively related to parents'

educational concepts.

Table 4. Correlation Analysis Between Social Media Usage Patterns and Educational Concept Influence

Pair of variable

Pearson correlations

coefficients (r)

Duration of use vs Degree of conceptual influence 0.45 0.003

Contac

frequenc

vs Willin

ness to appl

0.38 0.012

4.1.4 One-Sample t-Test

As shown in the Table 5 and Table 6, the average sex

variable is 1.457 (standard deviation =0.501), which

is significantly higher than that of comparative value

(t = 0(t=27.894, p<0.01). Therefore, it can be found

that the proportion of mothers in the sample is

significantly higher than that of fathers, and the

gender distribution is obviously biased. At the same

time, regarding the scientific cognition of social

media sex education content, the average value of

1.587 (standard deviation =0.495) is also significantly

different from the benchmark value (t=30.746,

p<0.01), and the effect is extremely large (Cohen's

d=3.205).

Table 5. One-Sample t-Test Results for Gender Distribution and Perceived Scientific Quality

Index Sample size Minimum Maximum Average

Standard

deviation

t p

Sex 92 1.000 2.000 1.457 0.501 27.894 0.000**

Thin

the sex education

content on social media is

scientific and comprehensive

enou

h o

92 1.000 2.000 1.587 0.495 30.746 0.000**

* p<0.05 ** p<0.01

Table 6. Effect Size Indicators for Gender and Scientific Perception Variables

Index Average

Contras

ure

Difference

95% CI

Standard

deviation

Cohen's d

Sex 1.457 0.000 1.457 1.353 ~ 1.560 91 0.501 2.908

Thin

the sex education

content on social media

is scientific and

comprehensive enough

1.587 0.000 1.587 1.484 ~ 1.689 91 0.495 3.205

PRMC 2025 - International Conference on Public Relations and Media Communication

366

5 CONCLUSION

Through the data analysis of 92 valid questionnaires,

it can be seen that social media platform plays a key

role in the dissemination of sex education content for

parents, but it also exposes a series of contradictions

worthy of attention. The survey found that more than

80% of parents had contacted related topics through

WeChat, Tik Tok and other channels, but less than

70% actually applied the content to their children's

education. This data difference between reception and

application reflects the deep problems of the current

communication system.

Through the first stage of preliminary research, it

can be found that algorithmic push opens parents'

cognition, but acquaintance relationship promotes

action. Although about 79% of parents are exposed to

the content of sex education because of the platform

recommendation mechanism, only half of these

groups have really turned into educational practice. It

is noteworthy that the parents who get the content

through sharing with friends, relatives or educators,

their practical application will reach 81%.

In terms of content quality evaluation, parents

show pragmatic coping strategies. Most parents use

the current content in a compromise way (under the

restriction of realistic conditions, a pragmatic strategy

to balance the needs of many parties by adjusting or

simplifying the original scheme to ensure that the

core objectives can still be promoted in a non-ideal

environment). In this study, although nearly 70% of

the respondents questioned the professionalism and

comprehensiveness of social media content, 60% of

parents still chose to use it in a limited way. Behind

this seemingly contradictory decision-making logic,

there is a set of clear screening criteria: age is the

primary consideration, and 89.5% of the participants

list it as the key indicator of content selection. Many

parents emphasized the necessity of grading

mechanism in the suggestion column.

Finally, at the application level, it is not difficult

to find that the longer parents brush, the easier it is for

the content to influence their educational concepts.

Nearly half of the high-frequency users who spend

more than three hours a day admit that social media

content significantly affects their educational

concepts, which is three times that of low-frequency

users. Statistically, the correlation coefficient

between usage duration and influence degree is 0.45,

and the significant coefficient is 0.003. However,

deep dependence is accompanied by a stronger voice

of doubt, and the questioning rate of this group on

information quality has exceeded 70%. It confirms

the tension between the inertia of use brought by

technological innovation and traditional educational

values.

In addition, mothers play a major role in the

application of social media communication content in

sex education. Among the parents, the gender

distribution and the cognition of the scientific content

of social media sex education are characterized by

significant deviation from the benchmark value. It

can be seen that in the algorithm push, the role of

mother especially needs the reception of sex

education content, and at the same time, fathers

should take on greater responsibility in education.

Based on the comprehensive research results,

optimizing the path requires multi-dimensional

collaborative efforts. The first task is to establish and

improve an accurate push mechanism, especially the

push content of female parents, and improve the

content matching degree by combining deep learning

algorithm and age tag system; Secondly, pay attention

to the communication efficiency of interpersonal

network and encourage the content sharing between

teachers and parents. Finally, it is necessary to build

an audit and certification system led by the education

department to control the information quality in time.

These measures not only help to bridge the gap

between the acceptance rate and the application rate,

but also respond to the urgent expectations of the

public for the professionalism and age-appropriate

content.

REFERENCES

Döring, N. 2021. Sex education on social media.

Encyclopedia of Sexuality and Gender, 1:12

Fowler, L. R., Schoen, L., Smith, H. S., et al. 2022. Sex

education on TikTok: A content analysis of themes.

Health Promotion Practice, 23(5):739–742

Hammer, M., Scheiter, K., & Stürmer, K. 2021. New

technology, new role of parents: How parents' beliefs

and behavior affect students’ digital media self-

efficacy. Computers in Human Behavior, 116:106642

Jin, X. 2021. The characteristics and relationship of

parental sexual knowledge and sex education attitude to

young children. Creative Education, 12(9):2002–2010

Lameiras-Fernández, M., Martínez-Román, R., Carrera-

Fernández, M. V., et al. 2021. Sex education in the

spotlight: What is working? Systematic review.

International Journal of Environmental Research and

Public Health, 18(5):2555

Lee, H. E., Kim, J. Y., & Kim, C. 2022. The influence of

parent media use, parent attitude on media, and

parenting style on children’s media use. Children,

9(1):37

The Transmission Ways of Social Media Sex Education Content to Parents and Its Inﬂuence on Children’s Education

367

Rahmatika, R., Yusuf, M., & Agung, L. 2021. The

effectiveness of YouTube as an online learning media.

Journal of Education Technology, 5(1):152–158

Walker, J. 2004. Parents and sex education—Looking

beyond ‘the birds and the bees’. Sex Education:

Sexuality, Society and Learning, 4(3):239–254

Wu, J. H., & Li, J. W. 2022, November 14. Breaking

traditional taboos, being yourself is cool [Newspaper

article]. China Women's News, (005)

Zhang, R. J., Yang, T. Y., & Sun, L. Z. 2021. Research on

the training strategy of parent-child relationship under

the “Internet Plus” new family education mode.

Advances in Psychology, 11:61

PRMC 2025 - International Conference on Public Relations and Media Communication

368