Parent reviews for The Secret Life of the American Teenager

I first watched this show in 2008 when I was 13 and I found it very entertaining and was addicted to it. Now, rewatching as an adult, I realize how bad the acting and the story line is. It portrays very unrealistic relationships between teens and their parents- the parents and teens talk about sex WAY to much together and in way too much detail. As a teenager, and even as an adult, I would NEVER discuss sex with my parents in the way these teens do with their families. There are good messages surrounding teen pregnancy, sexual assault and teen dating/relationships but there are other shows that discuss these topics in better ways than this show. I will give the casting director credit for creating a very diverse cast group, which includes characters with disabilities, different races and sexual orientations- especially for it being produced in 2008 when diversity was not as common on television. Overall, your 12 or 13 year old would probably find this show very entertaining and it is overall appropriate in terms of very little swearing, no drugs or alcohol use, but it talks about sex way too much- literally in every episode you will hear the word "sex" a minimum of 20 times. If your child has not learned about sex yet, this show would not be okay for them.

This show is disgusting. Who ever came up with the story line has a sick mind. The fact that everyone sleeps with each other including the adults and the fact that these “kids” are only 15-16 years old is disturbing. I will not ever let my kids watch this. I don’t know why everyone keeps saying that there’s good to this show when there isn’t the adults are very immature and stupid for letting their underage kids get into those types of consequences. The only one who I had respect was with Ben’s dad. The only one who had common sense. Everyone else was stupid. Especially Amy’s parents. Dumbest of them all. Waste of time. The fact they portray this show as a way to talk to your parents about sex is easy and you should trust your parents when no kids in their minds would talk to their parents about who they are having sex with and when they are going to have sex as if their adults and not 16 years old.

Hi! I really enjoyed watching this show, and I think that it has great lessons and could spark lots of conversations with your kid. If you are open with your kid, and your kid is open with you, than Ithink that this show could be very good. It has some mature themes, but the characters are great role models and handle these situations in very mature and realistic ways, which I think is great for kids and teens to see. It doesn't have much language or violence, but centers mainly around a teen pregnancy, which might be a little much for some kids. I think that if you make a deal with your kid beforehand that if they have any questions about the topics/material that comes up during this show, it could be very beneficial for them to watch!! Thank you so much for reading this review!

While the show only has a TV-14 rating it has mature themes such as abortion and infidelity which makes it inappropriate for kids and most teens. That being said one message that really sticks out is the main characters desire to do the right thing despite what others try to pressure her to do.

This is a really great show! It’s both funny and emotional! I don’t know why everyone says it’s so inappropriate, sure there is mentions of sex but nothing graphic. It’s terrific!

I understand what ABC Family is trying to do here. They are trying to encourage an open dialogue about sex between teenagers and their parents in order to help prevent teenage pregnancy, but I think they took it to the extreme. All the characters talk incessantly about sex with their parents. One notable character is Grace, the Christian girl in the series, who was constantly asking her mother for permission to have sex. Personally, I thought that if she had to ask her mother's permission to have sex, then clearly she wasn't mature enough to have sex. Like, just practice safe sex and shut the hell up already. Why you gotta drag your mom into this so frequently? You're 16. Use a condom and your birth control pills and call it a day already. That was awkward to watch with my 13 year old niece, but the tip of the iceberg came when Grace's mother had to sit down with her constantly-horny daughter and encourage her to masturbate as a way to alleviate her sexual urges. When Grace didn't express knowledge as far as how to masturbate, her mother instructed her on how to do it. Then Grace goes upstairs (presumably after announcing to her entire family of what she's about to do since even her brother was aware of the fact that she was masturbating up there) and does her thing, after which she then proceeds to come downstairs with the biggest smile on her face to give her mother a report on her masturbation session. Once again, I get it. ABC Family is trying to encourage open dialogue about sex between parents and their kids, but this was absolutely absurd. I can't imagine any teenager wanting their parents in on their masturbation habits and I don't think that is something that parents themselves want to know about and discuss with their kids, but ABC Family knew no limits in this show and that can make for some extremely uncomfortable moments if you are attempting to watch this show as a family as it is not a family show and it does take the open dialogue thing to the extreme. My niece and I stopped watching the show together after they got into the whole masturbation thing because it just became way too uncomfortable for her to watch it with me and the feeling was quite mutual on my end.

This show has to be one of the most annoying shows that I've tried to watch. All the characters whine constantly about sex and finding love from the young age of 15. The characters can't deal with reality and constantly complain when they don't get what they want. They base everything on the textbook love, sex and marriage, a scene can't end without sex or love being brought up... It's too much. The acting is terrible and the characters lack on screen chemistry. Romance movies and series are know for the onscreen chemistry between the characters, however, couples in this series lack, for example, Amy and Ricky all their interactions are plain and just as they were written on the script, no emotion! Overall, this show is very irritating to watch, unrealistic and 5 seasons too long!

SPOILER ALERT: I think this show is all about sex and how is the epitome of being cool in high school. I don't remember one episode that didnt talk about sex. I also do not remember any characters who hadn't had sex in the show or at least discussed having sex. The show occassionally states how 50% of high schoolers don't have sex but fail to show that on the show. Yes there was Ashley Jurgens who waited but she was tempted to sleep with Ricky and almost did. Another thing although Ashley and Ricky are my favorite characters and the best of the show, they are still debatable role models. Everyone on the show seems to have some questionable morals or are plain bad role models. Surprisingly it doesnt even have to do with the three teenage pregnanies that were discussed. It was more of why any of the characters did any of their decision. Ben always makes his decisions because of Amy or to get back at Amy. He married another women to make Amy jealous! No one is ever held responsible for their bad actions except for maybe Ricky who got Amy pregnant in the first place. Even Amy got to leave her son and go to New York not once but three times (to be fair one was only for a few days). Also although they did discuss the LGBTQ+ community I found no good moments in those episodes to say "this show is LGBTQ+ friendly". Yeah sure most of them dont care who is gay or straight but they also dont understand that that is a big deal to some people. In the entirety of the show there were only a handful of LGBTQ+ characters and if I'm not mistaken they were all either gay or lesbians. So the diversity is somewhat there? As a final note I would like to point out that nothing in the whole show was truly a secret for long. Any and every secret the characters had were spread around to the whole school. From Amy's mother being gay to the fact that Ricky goes to therapy.

This is completely unfit for anyone to watch, ever. The poorly acted characters portray sex and teenage pregnancy with such a level of complacent narcissism and entitlement that I actually feel less intelligent after having being forced to witness this pathetic attempt at entertainment. I truly believe any funds that were contributed to the production of this completely unrealistic version of reality would have certainly been more well spent on programs to help teenage mothers, not on some false version of reality that minimizes the significance of responsibility.