A moral guardian has hit out at both the BBC and Channel 4 over access to popular online catch-up TV services.
Mediawatch UK, founded by the the late clean-up campaigner Mary Whitehouse, as the National Viewers' and Listeners Association, claims both the BBC's iPlayer and Channel 4's 4oD, along with other catch-up services, are ignoring the traditional 9pm watershed for adult themed shows.
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The watch anything online anytime option means younger viewers can potentially watch unsuitable programmes, including HBO's True Blood, shown on Channel 4, and the BBC's Spooks and The Graham Norton Show unsupervised claims Mediawatch UK.
The group's new director Vivienne Pattison (pictured), accused broadcasters of paying "lip-service" to the need to protect children. "The technology has moved ahead of the regulation and that's the problem," Pattison told The Telegraph newspaper.
"Ofcom's most recent research found that fewer than a third of parents use parental controls or are confident about how to use them. And often it's children of parents who cannot or will not do something about it who are the ones you are most concerned about," she added.
Mediawatch UK's solution is to password protect online streaming TV channels from the BBC, Channel 4, ITV and others, something they intend to campaign strongly on in 2010.
"This is a really obvious one, it would be simple to do and we hope to campaign on it big next year," Pattison added.
According to their website, Mediawatch UK actively campaigns for socially responsible broadcasting and against content that is offensive and harmful, for example violence, swearing and pornography.
Mary Whitehouse died in 2001, aged 91. "She'll be sadly missed, I imagine, but not by me." the notoriously un-PC comedian Bernard Manning said at the time.
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Comments received
Chris MacAllister said on Mon, 14 Dec 2009
Mediawatch. Has anyone ever met a a member of this "organisation"? No, nor me. It's half a dozen people with too much time on their hands wailing "won't somebody please think of the children".
Seriously, this is not news.
Fred said on Mon, 14 Dec 2009
Oh dear, haven't these people thought that you could do the same thing more or less with an old video recorder 20 years ago? This is not news and these sad people do not deserve any airtime. It's down to parents to control their children's viewing, just as they control how they cross the road.
Anon said on Mon, 14 Dec 2009
This is absolute bull, I could go on. They all ask if your the given age if its a program for over 16, for example. Its not BBC etc fault if someone under that age ticks the box.
CW said on Mon, 14 Dec 2009
Up to parents. We don't need any more nanny state rules nor meddling do-gooders.
Jonah said on Mon, 14 Dec 2009
We want our kids to grow up before we did so we can carry on with our lives without any interference from the pesky kids.
Let them watch what they want, I say. I'm off to the pub.
Dragonfly said on Mon, 14 Dec 2009
These people obviously haven't looked at what's already available on the internet. In which case ITV, CH4 and BBC are the least of their worries.
sergiosbaby said on Mon, 14 Dec 2009
I have a son of 15 nd I have set a pin number so that he cannot access anything for over 16's. Parents do need to take more notice of what their children are watching and stop leaving the responsibility to others.
Voice of reason said on Mon, 14 Dec 2009
Two words: Parental Responsibility.
There is another two words I could use but it's not yet the watershed...
Neil said on Mon, 14 Dec 2009
This is not news if:
a. You haven't got kids.
b. You don't care what your kids watch.
Britain has been given over to the yobs anyway, so all this may be pointless.
andy said on Mon, 14 Dec 2009
if their computer doesnt have any parental controls then password protecting these services wont really make a difference. just having access to a search engine is all you need etc
David said on Mon, 14 Dec 2009
Most kids are up past 12am anyway these days, so either way, pre or post watershed, they will/can watch it...
@David said on Tue, 15 Dec 2009
only the kids of the feckless.
Badger said on Tue, 15 Dec 2009
'This is a really obvious one'
Yes, so obvious that in fact it's already been done. ITV at least has a PIN system in place.
Peter said on Tue, 15 Dec 2009
BBC, ITV and channel 4 have a PIN system in place as already stated. If parents don't know how to use parental controls, get help from someone then.
Most parents with braincells care about what their children watch. But this still isn't news as people have been saying it since on demand (and even video recorders) came out.
Nothing to see here. Move along.
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