Watchdog: 'Content Creep' Adding Violence, Profanity On TV

A new study has a message for the many families who have said television content has grown coarser with each passing year: You’re right.

Christian Headlines reports the study by the watchdog group Parents Television Council found a 28 percent increase in violence and a 44 percent increase in profanity over the past decade in shows rated TV-PG. It’s part of what the PTC calls “content creep” – that is, an increase in offensive content within a given rating compared to similarly rated programs a decade ago.

The study, released Tuesday, calls on Congress to conduct a bipartisan fact-finding hearing with pediatricians, children’s mental health experts, and child/family advocates on the ratings system.

“The status quo isn't working,” Tim Winter, president of the Parents Television Council, said during a conference call with reporters. “The self-governing solution the TV industry proposed to Congress and the FCC more than 20 years ago isn't really self-governing. It's self-serving.”

TV-PG programming, according to the official TV industry definition, is programming that parents may find “unsuitable for younger children.” This means (according to the definition) it’s suitable for older children, tweens and teens.

One problem, the study said, is that television networks rate their own programs – and thus have an incentive not to give programs a harsher rating.

Highlights of findings:

• Programs rated TV-PG contained on average 28% more violence and 43.5% more profanity in 2017-18 than in 2007-08.
• Profanity on PG-rated shows included suck/blow, screw, hell/damn, ass/asshole, bitch, bastard, piss, bleeped s—t, bleeped f—k. The 2017-18 season added “dick” and “prick” to the PG-rated lexicon.
• Violence on PG-rated shows included use of guns and bladed weapons, depictions of fighting, blood and death and scenes of decapitation or dismemberment; The only form of violence unique to TV-14 rated programming was depictions of torture.
• Programs rated TV-14 contained on average 84% more violence per episode in 2017-18 than in 2007-08.
• There was over 150% more violence, and 62% more profanity total, on programs rated TV-14 in 2017-2018 than in 2007-2008.
• In 2007-2008, there were more programs rated TV-PG [346] than programs rated TV-14 [273]. In 2017-2018, the opposite was true [224 PG vs. 383 TV-14].
• In February 2008, programs rated TV-PG outnumbered those rated TV-14 by more than 2-to-1; in February 2018, TV-14 content outnumbered PG content in almost the same ratio.
• There were no G-rated programs on Fox, CW, or ABC (even though ABC is owned by Disney) in any of the “sweeps” periods, in either 2007-2008 or 2017-2018.
• The overall number of G-rated shows in 2017-2018 was almost identical to that a decade earlier: five or fewer. Some “sweeps” periods contained no G-rated programming at all.