No interlude in lewd TV at children's hour

Children are ever more defenseless against the indecent content, sexist attitudes, excessive violence and foul language that appear on numerous TV programs, according to a report prepared by the Audiovisual Television Contents Observatory (OCTA), an organization that includes more than 50 citizens' associations. It complains that in 2010 the Family Programming Self-Regulation Code was increasingly violated by the networks.

This, in spite of the fact that the General Law for Audiovisual Communication, in effect since last May, is largely aimed at improved protection for minors. The code indicates that the networks' obligations include the avoidance of "indecent or insulting language," expressly including the SMS messages that appear on the screen, and scenes of "explicit violent or sexual content."

However, these criteria and others are ignored by free-to-air networks, who continue to broadcast adult content in protected hours (6am-10pm) and even at the supposedly extra-protected times (8-9am and 5-8pm). In its study, the OCTA includes about 100 violations picked at random, committed by the principal private networks in the course of last year. Sálvame (Telecinco) and El Diario (Antena 3) are two of the programs most often at odds with the norms. The former, an afternoon "magazine" show hosted by Jorge Javier Vázquez, is sadly famous for its references to various sexual practices, with demonstration of sex toys, and also for the insults the participants proffer to each other, epithets which include "whore," "coke addict," "scumbag" and "crook." As the for talk show of Antena 3, apart from content offensive to the "honor, privacy and dignity of persons," according to the study, an ever greater proportion of guests walk off the set, "feeling cheated and humiliated."

A rap on the knuckles also goes to Tonterías las justas (Cuatro). On September 14 of last year, for example, it offered images of a man on the beach in a thong, making obscene gestures, while saying: "I smear my body with the cream that comes out of men," all at around 5pm. The OCTA also reprimands the police-case show Crímenes imperfectos (La Sexta), for re-creating crimes with "extreme brutality and violence." For Isabel Martínez Eder, one of those responsible for the report, the public network TVE is the most careful and least offensive, with the exception of certain afternoon TV movies that contain "heavy doses of violence."

The OCTA also warns that the frontier between day and night programming is growing more diffuse, since some of the subsidiary channels of Telecinco (La Siete) and Antena 3 (Nova, Neox) indiscriminately broadcast formats conceived for night viewing, such as Big Brother.