Appropriate viewing

The recent outcry about inappropriate language, images, innuendi..etc...on Big Brother, should at least give us some cause to pause and understand the nature of television.

1. If you can brave it, watch a small section of the eviction show on Sunday night at 7.30 (on 10). It will be apparent that the average age of the audience is less than 16. While it is true that there is a cross-section of people in the audience...and we all sit down and watch it on Sunday night in our house...nevertheless there is an over-representation of the young. It is probably true to say that young girls appear to be more represented than young boys.

2. This is the target audience, I would suggest. The offending segment Big Brother Uncut is scheduled to screen after 9.30 at night... last week it included offensive language, derogatory male sexual comment about women and homosexuals. I know this because I walked into a room where the TV was on and it took me 2 minutes to realise what it was and turn it off. In that two minutes I heard both of those things.
With the best will in the world some sections of the enthusiastic child audience are going to find ways of watching this, with or without parental consent. It is not simply realistic enough to say "If you don't like it turn it off"...it maybe should be but in most households the adults are not standing around waiting to turn off offensive material.

3. The most sinister aspect of Big Brother to me ...which is often not commented upon...is that the daily serves, including BBUncut are all highly edited.
We are not watching so much the casual meanderings of this rather pathetic group of people, some of which turn out to be offensive. No, we are watching what the editor has decided will be watched. (The housemates who are unaware of what choice sections of their behaviour are being shown in the "real world" can at best be accused of being rather naive ...at worst, well, they are just narcissistic fools unashamed of their inappropriate behaviour.)
It is the editor who inflicts the full frontal nudity, the offensive language. It is the editor who selects whether Housemate A will be shown in a good light or a bad light this week.

If there is going to be genuine accountability then do not blame the foolish housemates. It is the editors who have chosen what will be seen.
It is also we, the audience, who sit down and watch this rubbish.
It is not called Big Brother for nothing!