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SEX AND VIOLENCE ARE A TURN-OFF FOR VIEWERS

More than half of the British public believe that standards of taste and decency on television are getting worse, a new survey by the broadcasting industry’s watchdog will warn this week.

The survey, to be published by the Standards Commission and the Independent Television Commission, will also disclose that a third of people think that the quality of programmes is deteriorating.

The prime concern of the 1,100 viewers questioned in the survey was them level of violence, which was cited by more than half those who complained about programme content. Explicit sex and bad language also prompted a large number of protests. Overall, more than 40 per cent of viewers said that they had been offended by material screened during the last year.

Kim Howells, the Government’s minister for broadcasting, expressed alarm at he findings and accused the television channels of screening “gratuitous” material which had a “corroding effect on the soul”. He urged the television channels to reassess their contents.

“I think people are growing increasingly worried about the levels of violence in television,” he said. “Broadcasters including the BBC need to ask themselves what they are trying to achieve with programmes like these. I think a lot of content has a corroding effect on the soul.

“I am particularly worried about the violence which would seem to have no relation to real life. A lot of it is simply gratuitous and it plays to the lowest common denominator.”

THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH, March 9, 2003