LOS ANGELES, February 2, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Parents Television Council (PTC), the nation’s most influential advocacy organization protecting children against sex, violence and profanity in entertainment, released a new study, “MTV Smut Peddlers: Targeting Kids with Sex, Drugs and Alcohol,” which found that MTV programming contains staggering levels of sex and foul language – far higher than anything found on adult-targeted television.
“MTV is blatantly selling raunchy sex to kids. Compared to broadcast television programs aimed at adults, MTV’s programming contains substantially more sex, foul language and violence – and MTV’s shows are aimed at children as young as 12. There’s no question that TV influences the attitudes and perceptions of young viewers, and MTV is deliberately marketing its raunch to millions of innocent children,” said L. Brent Bozell, president of the PTC.
MTV is watched by 73% of boys and 78% of girls ages 12 to 19, and it is profoundly influential in the lives of its young fans by glamorizing drug and alcohol use, sexual promiscuity and violent behavior.
MTV is owned by Viacom, the same corporate giant that owns CBS (the network that aired the 2004 Super Bowl at which Janet Jackson deliberately exposed her breast to a world-wide audience that included millions of unsuspecting children) and Nickelodeon. That corporate synergy ensures that even the youngest TV viewers are getting acclimated to the MTV brand.
The PTC recorded and analyzed 171 hours of programming around the clock during the week of March 20, 2004, to March 27, 2004, during MTV’s “Spring Break” coverage. MTV’s reality programs averaged 13 sexual scenes per hour, while music videos on MTV averaged 32 instances of foul language per hour.
“The incessant sleaze on MTV presents the most compelling case yet for consumer cable choice. MTV is a subsidized network. As it now stands, parents have no choice but to take – and pay for – MTV if they want basic cable in their homes. Given a choice, how many parents now being forced to take and pay for MTV as part of a basic cable package, would continue to do so?” asked Bozell.
Major Findings: – In 171 hours of MTV programming, PTC analysts found a staggering 1,548 sexual scenes containing 3,056 depictions of sex or various forms of nudity and 2,881 verbal sexual references. Children watching MTV are viewing an average of 9 sexual scenes per hour with approximately 18 sexual depictions and 17 instances of sexual dialogue or innuendo. To put this in perspective, consider that in its last study of sex on primetime network television, the PTC found an average of only 5.8 instances of sexual content during the 10 o’clock hour – when mostly adults are watching.
– Analysts recorded 1,518 uses of unedited foul language and an additional 3,127 bleeped profanities on MTV programming. Young children watching MTV are subjected to roughly 8.9 un-bleeped profanities per hour, and an additional 18.3 bleeped profanities per hour. By contrast, the 10 o’clock hour on the broadcast networks averaged only 6.5 uses of foul language per hour, according to the PTC’s latest research.