Bad Language Continues To Cause Concern

The repeated use of bad language on radio and TV remains an issue of concern to most adults, says a new report released today by the Broadcasting Standards Commission.

The importance of the watershed at 9pm was again stressed by respondents. It is used as a guide to likely content and allows parents to exercise some control over their children’s viewing. 89% said that all programmes shown before 9pm should be suitable for children to watch.

Most respondents (75%) thought that bad language was a fact of life and therefore was acceptable in certain circumstances. There was an expectation of more bad language in ‘action’ films and police dramas than in other genres, although its repetitious use is disliked by 86%. When it came to broadcasting films on TV, 65% of the sample also said they would prefer a film to be shown late at night in its original form rather than edited and shown at an earlier time.

The research, which updates work last undertaken in 1991, was commissioned in response to a request made by broadcasters to explore the criteria which cause bad language in a programme to move from ‘acceptable’ to ‘unacceptable’.

Broadcasting Standards Commission: 0171 233 0544