FCC considering allowing profanity and non-sexual nudity

[dead0man]

As a parent, I'm more concerned about my 2 year old daughter seeing violence than nudity. I'd rather not have her hear profanity though, as she is at the age where she repeats everything. But once she knows what words she shouldn't say, she can start hearing them

So the wife has started watching Criminal Minds reruns on random cable televisions and I've noticed something.
Agent 1-so this guy is going around middle schools, picking up outcast girls, locking them in his basement, sexually abusing them until he gets bored with them, and then kills them.
Agent 2-yes sir, that seems to be the case
Agent 1-that son-of-a-BLEEP

It's insane.  They'll be holding photographs of horrible crime scenes and bleep the word "damn".

[Antonio the Sixth]

I don't see why kids are brought up as an argument here. There are channels made for kids, and those should be held to a very high standard indeed. But there are also channels for adults, and most adults can handle violence, profanity and nudity to some degree. Gee, I watch Fox Crime regularly and I'm one of the most faint-hearted person of my age.

[politicallefty]

I don't see why kids are brought up as an argument here. There are channels made for kids, and those should be held to a very high standard indeed. But there are also channels for adults, and most adults can handle violence, profanity and nudity to some degree.

It's not just about having specific channels or programs for kids. I'm fairly sure most people have access to parental controls now. I think this is built into every TV, let alone more advanced cable or satellite boxes. If you don't want your kids to watch something, it can blocked quite easily. The kind of people that want vast censorship of the airwaves need to leave everyone else alone and actually parent. If only they put half that effort into actual parenting.

[Goldwater]

Letting kids watch TV in the first place (other than public television) seems like a pretty bad idea to me.

What makes public television inherently better? There are educational shows on privately owned television networks...

[TJ in Oregon]

Letting kids watch TV in the first place (other than public television) seems like a pretty bad idea to me.

What makes public television inherently better? There are educational shows on privately owned television networks...

I'm more concerned with allowing children to view advertisements, particularly those directed at them. That said, I've never been particularly impressed with the children's programming offered by other stations.

That's an easy remedy: don't let them buy stuff.

As for nudity and profanity, I wish it weren't there since TV is close to unwatchable for me even at this point (the crap my roommate watches is evidence of this at least), but it doesn't affect my life much since I almost never watch it anymore. Now that I don't want to shell out the $$ for cable, I really don't bother. Not much is lost from my life really. I don't even miss it.

[kobidobidog]

Real profanity is refusing to be like Jesus is. Nakedness is not bad. Sex when seen is not bad. Why ban one or the other.

[Frodo]

As expected, the overwhelming majority of the American public is frantically begging the FCC not to relax decency standards (no mention of violence on television, however...) on public airwaves:

FCC flooded with objections to more swearing, nudity on TV

By Ben Goad - 07/06/13 09:03 AM ET

Opponents of easing restrictions on cursing and “nonsexual nudity” over public airwaves have flooded the Federal Communications Commission with more than 100,000 public comments.

The FCC in April asked for feedback on a plan to focus its enforcement efforts on the most egregious cases of indecency. If adopted, the regulations would be a departure from more aggressive George W. Bush-era policies of penalizing even isolated uses of expletives on broadcast television.

In particular, the commission sought comments on how it should handle infrequent cursing and instances of nudity that are not overtly sexual.

Nearly 102,000 people and groups answered, the vast majority in opposition to the proposed changes, which would cover broadcast TV and radio stations, but not cable, satellite or the Internet.

“The public is outraged,” said attorney Patrick Trueman, president and CEO of the nonprofit Morality in Media, which has helped lead the charge against a policy shift.

In letter upon letter, private citizens and traditional values groups implored the FCC to refrain from relaxing the rules, arguing that there is already too much smut and profanity on TV.
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Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/regwatch/technology/309405-fcc-flooded-with-objections-to-more-swearing-nudity-on-tv#ixzz2YKnwgm2q

[barfbag]

It should only be on certain channels after midnight.