A strong mother-daughter relationship neutralized the TV effect on girls, the report from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven says. For boys, the risk actually increased if they were closer to their moms.

So what’s happening in the mother-son relationship that’s not happening in the mother-daughter one?

One theory that co-authors Laura Vandenbosch and Steven Eggermont offered is that when a mother encourages her TV-watching son to talk about sex, he might misinterpret her intentions as a confirmation of the importance of sex in his life or even as an approval of recreational sex.

Another theory factors in the idea that the more time a boy spends with TV, the more time he is exposed to gender stereotypes.