But while these sex-soaked themes may offer laugh-out-loud good times for the network's "older" -- that is, college-aged -- viewers, how does it affect the younger age group that makes up a significant portion of the MTV audience? "The risk is setting up unrealistic expectations about sex -- kids can lose their perspective and may not be emotionally ready to deal with [such content]," says Robin Goodman, a psychologist with New York University's Child Study Center. "You want to avoid having kids do things just because they think everyone else is doing it. Just because it's there on MTV a million hours a day doesn't mean everyone's behaving that way -- having a lot of sex partners, for example, or engaging in risky sexual behaviors."

Thompson points out that at least MTV's latest fare is open and honest about its sexual nature. "With 'I Lived in a Brothel,' you know exactly what you're getting. Actually, I find the more subtle stuff -- like the 'virgin chic' of Britney Spears -- creepier." But as the expansion of basic cable allows kids to watch everything from strippers on "Howard Stern" and Brazilian thong-wearing models on E!'s "Wild On ... " to thinly veiled sex jokes on Comedy Central, how can MTV keep up and stay on the cutting edge of copulation?

It's hard to envision what could possibly be next for MTV -- cameras in "Real World" bedrooms filming three-ways? "House of Doggie Style"? A VJ whippin' out a vibrator to show kids how it's really done? Go ahead and laugh -- if the history of MTV tells us anything, it is this: that its outrages of today will seem tame tomorrow.