Ofcom has issued new guidance on the TV watershed, warning broadcasters to be more careful about programmes they show before 9pm that could be unsuitable for children or the easily offended.
The new guidance follows a series of recent meetings with broadcasters to ensure they are clear about the censorship rules compliance that Ofcom expects from them.
The new guidance outlines how broadcasters must comply with the Broadcasting Code rules for pre-watershed content, with specific focus on:
- Programmes broadcast before and soon after the watershed; and
- Music videos broadcast before the watershed.
Broadcasters are expected to pay particular attention to family viewing programmes, trailers and soaps. Ofcom advises broadcasters to take particular care with post-watershed content which has been edited for pre-watershed viewing, for example by masking or editing offensive language.
Surveying the easily offended
Ofcom have also published a new survey about viewing ‘concerns’. For example, fewer parents are now concerned about the TV programmes their children watch (31%) than they were in 2009 (36%).
Ofcom also measures parents’ views about the time of the watershed and the amount of TV regulation. 77% of parents think the watershed is at the right time, and 73% believe the amount of censorship of television is about right.
The new research found that the majority (58%) of parents surveyed were not concerned by what their children had watched on television before 9pm in the last 12 months. One quarter (24%) of the parents surveyed said they were fairly concerned, although fewer than one in ten (9%) said they were very concerned.
21% of all parents surveyed mentioned concerns about nudity or sexual content, one in five (20%) were concerned about violence, and one in six (17%) had concerns about offensive language.
Just under a quarter (23%) of teenagers surveyed said that over the past 12 months they had seen something on TV before the watershed that had made them uncomfortable or had offended them.
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