CANADA — In a decision released last week, the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) found that an episode of the MTV Canada program MTV Live covering the subject of virtual sex was too sexually explicit for the morning time slot in which it was rebroadcast last April, and ruled that MTV Canada had breached the Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) Code of Ethics.In a press release accompanying its ruling, the CBSC notes that although the episode of MTV Live in question contained “segments relating to cyber-dating and cyber-sex, a virtual sex machine, and an online role-playing sex game” and “detailed descriptions of sexual activity,” the broadcast “did not contain any viewer advisories and was rated PG.”
Clause 10 of the CAB Code of Ethics holds that “[p]rogramming which contains sexually explicit material…. intended for adult audiences shall not be telecast before the late viewing period, defined as 9 pm to 6 am.”
Upon review of the morning rebroadcast of the MTV Live episode in question, the National Specialty Services Panel of the CBSC determined that the episode “contained material that should not have been aired before 9:00 pm,” the CBSC states in its press release.
Eric J. White, CEO of Virtual Reality Innovations (VRI), who appeared on the controversial episode of MTV Live to discuss a VRI product called the Virtual Sex Machine, said that he was “disappointed” by the CBSC ruling.
“The appearance on MTV was intended to educate the audience on the future direction of High tech sex and the availability of alternative sexual dysfunction treatments now available,” White said in a written statement issued by VRI last week. “Although the material discussed is intended for a sexually active, adult audience, my responses to the interviewer’s questions were carefully limited to a description of how the machine operated.”
In its report, the CBSC notes that in the complaint it received about the morning airing of MTV Live, “complainant’s primary concern was the segment about the virtual sex machine.”
The CBSC report includes the text of messages received from the complainant in question, who protests that MTV Canada had “interviewed a creepy middle-aged guy who sold a masturbation device for boys,” and refers to the interview as “by far the most indecent thing I’ve ever seen on television at any time, anywhere.”
In the complaint, the complainant observes that the re-broadcast took place at 8:30 am on “Easter Monday,” and objects to the show posting the URL of VRI’s website. The complainant also exhorts the CSBS to “review the tapes for yourself,” adding that the CBSC would be “flabbergasted.”
“I was, and I don’t consider myself to be religious or even conservative,” the complainant writes. “This, however, crossed so many lines of decency.”
In his response to the CBSC decision, White said it was “important to note they referenced a single complaint.”
“While it’s the mandate of the Council to ‘respect the interests and sensitivities of the people they serve,’ it is also their stated purpose to do this ‘while meeting their responsibility to preserve the industry’s creative, editorial and journalistic freedom,’” White states in his response. “This recent ruling responded to the accusations of a single unhappy viewer, but limits the free speech and creativity of the industry as a whole.”
“If this is the direction the council chooses, the limitations placed on free speech will hurt the entire populace they are mandated to serve,” White asserts in his response to the decision. “It holds the viewing public hostage to a small special interest group, or indeed, a single person’s viewpoint.”
In its ruling, the CBSC argues that while determining which sexually explicit material is too sexually explicit for broadcast can be a tricky business, like it or not, it is their job to define such distinctions.
“It goes without saying that there is no mathematical formula that can be applied to determine whether sexual content is exclusively intended for adult audiences,” the CBSC states in its decision. “Nonetheless, the CBSC Panels have developed criteria which they apply to programming in order to make that determination.”
“Generally speaking, it has been the combination of nudity and sexual activity that has led CBSC Panels to conclude that programming is exclusively adult-oriented,” the CBSC states in the decision. “Over time, though, and in the face of differing content, the CBSC has refined that position and the key to its definition is sexual explicitness… even where there is neither nudity nor sexual activity, there may still be enough explicitness in the dialogue, discussion or descriptions to conclude that the programming is intended for adults.”
The CBSC asserts that in considering the issue of explicitness, “the Panel not only includes evident or obvious matter but also that which may be somewhat obscure or ambiguous.”
“[The Panel] must, needless to say, judge whether the obscurity or ambiguity of the challenged matter becomes inappropriate for viewing by those who are not adult,” the CBSC states in its ruling. “The CBSC Panels have, over time, built empirical criteria in the Council’s body of precedents and that jurisprudence grows, in principle, with every grey-scale decision.”
“Applying these principles to the challenged program, the Panel finds that the discussion of the Virtual Sex Machine, and the Naughty America on-line sexual game were sufficiently explicit and specific to be inappropriate for non-adult eyes and ears before the Watershed, particularly in an 8:00 am time slot and as a part of a program intended for non-adult viewers,” the CBSC decision states. “Consequently, the Panel concludes that the broadcast in question was in breach of Clause 10 of the CAB Code of Ethics.”
As a result of the CBSC decision, MTV Canada is now required to do three things; (1) announce the decision “once during prime time within three days following the release of this decision and once more within seven days following the release of this decision during the time period in which this episode of MTV Live was broadcast;” (2) provide “written confirmation of the airing of the statement to the complainant who filed the Ruling Request;” and (3) “provide the CBSC with a copy of that written confirmation and with air check copies of the broadcasts of the two announcements which must be made by MTV Canada.”
In his response, White decries the CBSC decision as “censorship,” and argues that it will have a chilling affect on the free speech of Canadians.
“It’s just this kind of censorship that creates the hesitancy in people to seek out help for a more satisfying sexual performance with their partner,” said White in his statement. “The fear that their personal desires will be publicly exposed and ridiculed simply because they seek out information about sexual treatment and satisfaction tools…. It is unfortunate that in a modern society, we are still unable to openly discuss matters of a sexual nature without government intrusion and abjection.”
