OTTAWA – Sexualization of children on the radio and talking about sex before school in the morning on TV are two no-nos, the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council said Wednesday in a pair of releases.
Last September, on CFRQ-FM Halifax (Q104, a Newcap station), following the giant outdoor Rolling Stones concert in the city, two announcers, Scott Mars and JC Douglas discussed the event where Mars suggested his partner was “excited like a little school-girl."
That’s not the problem. The problem came when Douglas replied: “with my budding breasts and my rock-hard nipples.”
A representative from the Women’s Innovative Justice Initiative contacted the station to complain that this comment sexualized children and “objectified girls’ bodies.” Dissatisfied with the station’s response, the complainant contacted the CBSC, which examined the complaint under Article 4 (Exploitation) of the CAB Sex-Role Portrayal Code, which prohibits the exploitation and sexualization of children.
The Atlantic Regional Panel concluded that the comments did violate that Code. “Like a little school-girl” [alone] would have been understood in the same way as “like a little school-boy” would have been, namely, with the emphasis on “little”, as in naïvely excitable, girlishly, boyishly or youngishly thrilled… The dialogue between Scott and J.C. did not, however, end at such an innocuous place… In the view of the panel, the reference was clearly sexual and… the intent to refer to children was unmistakable," says the CBSC release.
The other decision handed down today concerned an MTV Live broadcast on self-love. While masturbation isn’t something frowned upon by the CBSC, having it on at 7:30 a.m. while kids eat their breakfast before school, is, and a viewer complained.
The Council reminded MTV, while ruling that it violated Clause 11 of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters Code of Ethics, that such frank sex talk belongs in the evenings and needs viewer advisories, too.
"The episode did not, after all, just deal briefly or peripherally with the subject; it was a full hour that focused on a wide range of inclusive masturbatory sub-themes. These included a sex store with an array of sexual objects, such as whips and dildos, discussion of public masturbate-a-thons, vibrators, doctors’ use of masturbatory massagers on patients, at least one videotaped sketch implying an individual masturbating, and so on," reads the decision.
