PTC: Family Hour Isn't for Families

Parents Television Council: Sexual Content, Violence Up During 8 p.m.-9 p.m. Time Period

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 9/5/2007 2:54:00 PM

The Parents Television Council said the family hour on TV is no place for kids.

In a new content analysis of the 8-9 time period on ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, The CW and My NetworkTV, the PTC concluded that sexual content increased 22.1% in the hour since its last study in 2000-01 and that violence was up by 52.4%.

Scripted shows were the biggest offenders, with 16.88 instances per hour of "foul" content, which included swearing, bleeped swearing, sexual content and pixilated sexual content, and violence, including surgeries.

Unscripted shows averaged only 5.82 per hour, while game shows were the cleanest fare at 0.31 per hour.

The PTC has called for a return to more family fare from 8 p.m.-9 p.m. -- a call that has been echoed by Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin. It was PTC complaints about various shows that helped to spur the FCC's tougher enforcement of indecency rules.

Jim Dyke, who heads the industry's TV Watch campaign promoting the v-chip/ratings system, said PTC was off base. "For starters, kids should only be watching programming that is appropriate for them all day," he said. "The world of TV has changed and it shouldn't be about a single hour but about parents making decisions based on the ratings, and enforcing those decisions using the blocking technologies, if they so chose, so that their child sees what is appropriate for their age, maturity level, and family standard."