Gore - Blood, detailed scenes of people getting wounded
Extreme violence - People beating someone up
Swearing - Any type of swearing
Sexual scenes - Any type of sexual content
Drug use - Any type of drug use
Discrimination - Discrimination that isn't told that it's wrong
I'm worried that they will see these things and that it will affect them in later life. Kids are very influential people, if they see something they'll most likely copy it which is why we need to censor what we let them what.
Ethics
Ethics in basic term what is right and wrong. Looking into it more though it's not as simple as that, it's more of a sliding scale on what we could think of as right and wrong. For example murder is wrong, but there is a lot of different situations in which this could be argued. War, is one of those situations, when people go to War, a lot of people don't see it as murder, but some people do. It's very opinion based.
Television programmes that promote good ethics
When it comes to television programmes that promote good ethics, children's TV programmes usually come first, there is no bad language in them or anything of the sort. Most of the shows are very educational and when it comes to the 'bad guy' (a person with bad ethics) it's always very minor types of bad ethical crimes that are committed and when that happens it's always dealt with to stop them and this promotes good ethics. But then when we think about it more there are a lot of TV programmes that promote good ethics that have extreme language in that may not be suitable for kids to watch but they still promote good ethics.
Should TV and Film be more ethical? Can TV and film be blamed for the slipping ethics of society?
In my opinion I think that quite a lot of TV and Film could be more ethical but only the extreme shows, for example, South Park(1) and Family Guy. These two shows are so ethically wrong and promote bad morals, they're racist, homophobic and sexist. There is no punishment (on the show) for these types of themes so it's not like they're saying racism, homophobia and sexism is wrong, they're making light of it. Satirical humour(2) is just a way of promoting bad ethics and saying it's a joke. Making light of such serious issues is going to desensitise the public to them so that when they are faced with these problems in real life (most likely witnessing these problems) they won't react in the way that they should do.
1)
2) http://www.gender-focus.com/2012/04/28/a-response-to-the-pitfalls-of-satire/
Though on the other hand this is also questionable, me personally I watch Family Guy and South Park and I take the issues that are made light of on the show very seriously, though when I watch the episodes I still find them funny. This is because I'm not a very impressionable person and I feel like if you are a very impressionable person you shouldn't be allowed to watch TV because in simple terms you're an idiot. It's the same argument that violent video games make people violent, I don't think this is true. It's very easy to blame the media for all of our problems but really if people are going out and doing these bad things (murder, being racist, sexist, homophobic) then maybe there's something wrong with those people anyway. If you actually think that it's okay to do these things just because a TV show shows them then I don't understand why you're even watching it in the first place.
Prom night dumpster baby - Family Guy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRj-S8Aklcw
This clip is a prime example of why programmes like Family Guy shouldn't be taken seriously. They only sometimes jump over to the side where satire isn't satire anymore it's just offensive for the sake of being offensive, but when they do it's awful. Like in the clip, this is a serious issue of unplanned teenage pregnancy that needs attention and support, not mockery. It's taking the seriousness away from the issue which isn't what we need because then it's not seen as important and people don't acknowledge it as so.
Big Brother Jade Gooding argument
What is happening in this clip and what ethical issues might it raise?
Jade and Sherpa were arguing about food, as the clip progressed Jade got angrier and started saying things that people could perceive as racist. In my opinion I did take the things that Jade said as being racist and I don't think that it should of been shown on TV. Impressionable children could watch this and see this as an okay thing to do and then carry it out in real life. This clip has been edited heavily so we don't get the full story as to what exactly happened and what was said at what times. This is usually the case with reality TV programmes (and the media in general) things could be edited to make it seem unethical but really we'll never know if it was or wasn't. Channel 4 did get in trouble for this as they breached the Ofcom code of conduct.
