Ottawa, October 19, 2016 – The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) today released its decision concerning CTRL broadcast on MusiquePlus on November 11, 2015. A viewer complained that the program contained material inappropriate for children at 1:00 pm. The CBSC concluded that the broadcast should have had viewer advisories, but the content was not so adult as to require a late evening broadcast.
CTRL featured three young adult hosts presenting video clips from the internet and making humorous comments about them. The clip that concerned the complainant was of some sort of rally where people were wielding dildos, waving or throwing them in the air, hitting each other with them and a quick shot of a woman sucking one. There were also two instances of the English f-word. MusiquePlus rated the episode 13+, but did not provide any viewer advisories. The complainant expressed her concern that her children had been exposed to sexual material and that the rating given by her cable provider was 8+.
The CBSC French-Language Panel examined the complaint under the relevant provisions of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters’ (CAB) Code of Ethics and Violence Code regarding scheduling, advisories and classification. The Panel concluded that the program did not show any actual explicit sexual acts, so it could be broadcast at 1:00 pm, but should have included viewer advisories. It also found that the English-language f-word is not as problematic in a French-language program as it might be in an English one. It agreed that 13+ was the correct rating, but found that MusiquePlus should have displayed the icon for at least 15 seconds as required by the CAB Violence Code and the icon should have appeared earlier than 32 seconds into the broadcast. The Panel also noted that this genre of program is not exempt from classification. The CBSC had no explanation for the cable provider’s misclassification, as its jurisdiction is limited to the broadcasters.
The CBSC was created in 1990 by Canada’s private broadcasters to administer the codes of standards that they established for their industry. The CBSC currently administers 7 codes which deal with ethics, equitable portrayal, violence, news and journalistic independence. Around 800 radio stations, satellite radio services, television stations and specialty and pay television services across Canada participate in the Council.
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All CBSC decisions, Codes, links to members’ and other web sites, and related information are available on the CBSC’s website at . For more information, please contact the CBSC National Chair, Andrée Noël, at anoel@cbsc.ca or CBSC Executive Director, John MacNab, at jmacnab@cbsc.ca or by telephone at (613) 233-4607.