Ofcom Lays Down The Law

Ofcom has ordered UK broadcasters to be more careful about showing sexually explicit music videos before the 9pm watershed. The regulator issued new guidance on Friday, focusing on the visual as well as the verbal content of some music videos in a bid to tighten the enforcement of existing watershed rules. Broadcasters have been told to take particular care masking or editing offensive language where possible, in order to protect children.

The new guidelines follow recent scrutiny by the regulator into pre-watershed programmes that it judged to be either unsuitable or close to unsuitable for children. Ofcom's move also follows the publication of a government-backed report in the summer by Mothers' Union chief executive, Reg Bailey, which called for tighter control of sexualised imagery including raunchy music videos.


It also follows the controversy over last December's The X Factor final, which attracted 4,500 complaints to Ofcom due to its raunchy performances by Rihanna and Christina Aguilera.

Ofcom's warning to broadcasters was accompanied by new research involving more than 1,000 parents and primary carers which showed that 11% of parents found music videos the greatest cause of concern regarding the kind of programmes shown before the watershed.

Other types of programme that most concerned parents were soaps (14% of respondents) and films (14%) followed by reality programmes (12%).

However, the research indicated that 58% of parents and primary carers surveyed were not concerned by what their children had watched on television before 9pm in the past 12 months. Less than a quarter – 24% – said they were "fairly concerned", although 9% said they were "very concerned".

Just under a quarter (23%) of the 768 teenagers surveyed said that in the past 12 months they had seen something on TV before the watershed that had made them uncomfortable or had offended them.

Earlier this week Ofcom upheld complaints against the music channel Greatest Hits TV for showing a quarter-hour segment of videos by the US rap star 50 Cent at 9am.

The watchdog upheld a series of complaints about the scenes depicted in the videoes which included "dancing with two topless female performers in a sexualised manner" in the music video for the song P.I.M.P, as well as images of two females being walked like dogs with leashes.

The video for the song I Like the Way She Do It contained the lyrics: "It never enough she like it rough. We keep it going and we switch positions, listen". Another video for the song If I Can't contained the words "pussies","nigger","motherfucker" and "fuck".

Ofcom ruled the screening was a "clear breach of broadcasting code" and put licence holders Mushroom TV "on notice" following the incident.

This year has seen an increase in efforts to curb the broadcast of raunchy pop videos at times when children were watching.

Following the Bailey report, prime minister David Cameron called for a Downing Street summit of retailers, advertisers, broadcasters, magazine editors, video games and music industry chiefs and regulators to gauge progress over issues including the exposure of children to sexualised imagery, which is due to take place in October.

The summit is still due to take place according to Ofcom, but it is unclear if Cameron will accede to calls in Bailey's report for legislation in 18 months if demands for tighter voluntary controls are not implemented.