OTTAWA – The sexualization of children is unacceptable on Canadian airwaves regardless of what time of day it airs, the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) has ruled.
The CBSC investigated an episode of The Conventioneers that aired on Bite TV on December 31, 2010 at 4 pm EST after receiving a complaint from a viewer. The program follows two hosts as they attend various conventions and trade shows, and interview people working at and attending the conventions and make comedic remarks about what they see.
In the Christmas special episode, one host was dressed as Santa Claus and interviewed children and adults who were attending the Holiday Entertaining and Décor Show. In post-production, the dialogue that had actually taken place between the host and the interviewees was replaced with sexual comments for apparently comedic effect.
The CBSC’s National Specialty Services Panel investigated the show and found the broadcast in violation of Article 8(b) of the CAB Equitable Portrayal Code.
“[the comments] are individually and collectively in breach of Article 8(b) of the CAB Equitable Portrayal Code”, reads its decision. “It should also be remembered that the sexualization of children is not an issue that would benefit from being broadcast at a later hour of the day. It is a proscription that applies to the entire broadcast day and night.”
The Panel also noted that the presence of certain expletives and some sexual comments meant that the program be broadcast only after 9:00 pm (and before 6:00 am); that the broadcast should have contained viewer advisories coming out of every commercial break, and that those advisories should have provided more detail about the specific nature of the content; and that the episode should have been accompanied by a 14+ classification icon.
Bite TV was quick to respond both to the viewer’s complaint and to the CBSC’s decision, noting that the episode in question had not been approved for broadcast and had aired in error. It also pulled both the offending episode and the first three seasons of the series from any future airings, noting that it they “do not reflect the new Bite TV brand”.
“Further complicating the situation, this airing happened at a time when there were technical issues with our viewer warnings that appear during an episode not intended for younger audiences”, reads a statement sent to Cartt.ca on Monday by the channel’s parent company GlassBox.
Bite TV is not disputing the CBSC’s findings, and has since aired two on-air apologies (on October 28 during prime-time and on October 31 at 4 pm) as outlined in the conditions of the ruling, has posted an apology to viewers on the home page of its website, and has sent a written apology to the viewer who made the complaint.
“At no point ever, did GlassBox or Bite TV deem this offending episode suitable for broadcast and we want to ensure that our viewers know we take this issue very seriously”, the statement continues. “We have since amended our quality control and screening process for all acquired and original content in order to ensure this error does not happen again.”
– Lesley Hunter
