TV and Minors

The reintroduction of “the ban on pornography and gratuitous violence on television, extending it to other audiovisual channels” to “better protect our children from harmful content and the new challenges of the digital environment” has been called for by the Federation of Catholic Family Associations in Europe (FAFCE) at a meeting held at the Brussels headquarters of the European Parliament on the issue of exposure of children. The Federation’s appeal is made within the context of the revision of the Audiovisual Media Services Directive, which is being discussed and could lead to authorizing broadcasters—including on-demand services and video sharing platforms—to transmit violent or pornographic programs, even those subject to encryption or “strict parental controls.”

Today, says FAFCE, children and young people “are very much at ease with technologies and access audiovisual contents from multiple platforms;” this makes it “difficult for parents to monitor what they are doing and increases the risk that they are exposed to harmful content.” Not only do children spend many hours in front of screens (according to FAFCE, in Britain the average is around 6.5 hours a day), but they are exposed to pornography, says the Federation, that makes them absorb an “image of sexual relationships, dissociating sexuality from the broader context of relationships“: on the basis of these premises, concludes the Federation, the appeal is addressed to all parliamentarians, along with an invitation to “improve EU legislation in this area.“