Argh! My post just erased itself. I will try to reconstruct it. I have many thoughts on this topic, but I will try to keep them as readable as possible.
Mini-rant first. The whole SpongeBob thing makes me so angry. As a very very progressive liberal, that and the whole Tinky-Winky thing from a couple years ago just makes me shake my head. In the article, one of the quotes from the Christian group was something along the lines of "a gay person in a video about tolerance? no way!" G-d forbid. I can't help but wonder what kind of country I live in. Anywho.
The whole sex vs. violence thing I have witnessed firsthand. My father will let my 16-year-old sister see anything with a huge amount of violence in it. But a little bit of sex... and it's a no-no. He told me once, when she was like 14, that he doesn't care if she sees an R-rated movie if it's rated that way for violence. But if it's sexuality-based, then there's no way she's seeing it. Tangent complete.
Now, to your original question, wyndhy, about raising children infested with this media's influence. I don't have children, but I would say that the best way to deal with the negativity is to instill in your children, from a very young age, strong feelings of tolerance and acceptance. Because we don't live in a bubble, they are certain to meet people throughout life that hold ignorant, close-minded attitudes about sex and all related issues. However, children tend to believe what their parents teach them, which, consequently, is why many people still hold bigoted attitudes. But that's another topic. Back on track. I would say, show, by example, that sex isn't dirty. I'm not saying watch porn in front of them, but bring the topics up at age-appropriate levels. There are many excellent books about this topic, I can recommend some if you wish. But if you teach your child the correct things, they can be the ones to correct all the horrible things that they will hear from their classmates at school. Which you can be sure that they will hear. I feel like I'm rambling. But your child will grow up believing what you say. To teach them a healthy expression of their sexuality will help them immensely in the long run.