Ottawa, March 15, 2002 – The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) today released its decision concerning the broadcast of an episode of the documentary series The Sex Files entitled “The Rear End”. The CBSC National Specialty Services Panel concluded that the program was not exploitative in any way, but that it did, in any event, require a viewer advisory at the beginning of the broadcast.
The episode, which contained discussions about the place of human buttocks in sexual activity and included scenes of couples engaged in anal sex, aired at 12:00 midnight EST. With respect to the sexual content, the National Panel stated:
The approach of the program is [...] informative and enlightening, not salacious or titillating. Men and women are depicted and treated with respect and in a balanced manner. [The provision against exploitation in the Canadian Association of Broadcasters’ (CAB) Sex-Role Portrayal Code] is not intended to prevent the presentation of healthy adult sexuality, which is precisely what this program aims to promote.
The episode, however, lacked a viewer advisory alerting audiences to this explicit content at the beginning of the program, although it did feature advisories coming out of every commercial break. Discovery Channel cited the relocation of their master control office as the reason for this oversight. Despite this explanation, the Panel found a breach of Article 5.1 of the CAB Voluntary Code Regarding Violence on Television which clearly states that advisories are required at the beginning of programs containing scenes intended for adult audiences, which includes sexually explicit scenes. The Panel commented that
the obligation to provide such advisories is an obligation of result. Broadcasters must find a way, notwithstanding such indispositions which inevitably arise from time to time, to avoid such errors. The viewing public depends on that and the CAB Violence Code does not allow for exceptions to the rule [...].
The Panel also emphasized that the viewer advisory at the beginning of such a program “is obviously crucially important in that it is the first opportunity for viewers to be made aware that upcoming programming may not be to their tastes.” The Panel did, however, commend the single-feed specialty service, Discovery Channel, for airing the program at 12:00 midnight EST, which meant that the show appeared after 9:00 pm in all Canadian time zones.
Canada’s private broadcasters have themselves created industry standards in the form of Codes on ethics, gender portrayal and television violence by which they expect the members of their profession will abide. In 1990, they also created the CBSC, which is the self-regulatory body with the responsibility of administering those professional broadcast Codes, as well as the Code dealing with journalistic practices first created by the Radio Television News Directors Association of Canada (RTNDA) in 1970. More than 500 radio and television stations and specialty services from across Canada are members of the Council.
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All CBSC decisions, Codes, links to members’ and other web sites, and related information are available on the World Wide Web at www.cbsc.ca. For more information, please contact the National Chair of the CBSC, Ron Cohen, at (###) ###-####.