37% Of People “Personally Disgusted” By TV Content, Says Report

The amount of people expressing concern about the content of television programmes has grown, according to the latest briefing from the Broadcasting Standards Commission. Half of all respondents said that they had been offended by television output during 1999, a 17% increase on the previous year.

Violence continues to be the prime offender, with 39% of those polled spontaneously mentioning it as a main cause for concern. Swearing and offensive language are also on the increase as causes for concern and the depiction of sexual activity was mentioned by one in five of the 1000 people interviewed.

A total 37% of respondents said they had turned off or away from a programme because they felt “personally disgusted” by something they had seen and 46% had switched off because they were watching with children. Age and gender seem to be significant amongst those acknowledging concern for television output, with women and people from older age categories more likely to be concerned.

Most viewers, however, acknowledge when questioned that the majority of incidents noted as offensive are justifiable within their context and only 0.5% of pre-watershed viewing was deemed to contain unjustifiable incidents. Even after the watershed only 2.5% of violent incidents on TV were considered to be unjustifiable.

Indeed, the greatest cause for offence amongst those polled was the broadcast of unfair treatment of people or organisations, with 54% saying there were offended by “too much” of this sort of content on television. This compared to 51% who found too much swearing offensive, 50% finding too much violence on TV offensive and just 42% finding the increased depiction of sex on TV offensive.

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