The F word on TV

I heard on the news this morning that the High Court has ruled that the Broadcasting Standard Authority was wrong to find that TVNZ should have bleeped the F word in their piece about Aramoana on the Sunday programme early this year.

Sunday screens at 7:30pm and the BSA said children would be likely to be watching, so they shouldn't have aired any swearing. TVNZ said that the use of the word had to be seen in context - the show was documenting an important historical event and needed to be accurate. It came up because one of the Police Officers who confronted David Gray was being interviewed and he said that he said to Gray "Look, you're f***ing killing women and children, why don't you come out and have a go at one of us" (or something very close to that). The High Court agreed with TVNZ.

What do people think about this? I agree that there should be a general rule that you don't show graphic sex/violence or gratuitous swearing when children are likely to be watching. However, this was a news programme about a mass murder. If children were watching that I'm sure they would be more traumatised by the cold blooded killing of children (esp in horrid circumstances like burning them) than one instance of the use of the F word. If I had to decide whether to let my children watch it, I would make my decision based on whether they should be seeing and hearing about that sort of tragedy - if I decided they should, I'm not going to change my mind because they might hear the F word. I think it would be up to me to explain (if the use of the F word was a big deal to me) that while it is a swear word, these were exceptional circumstances and the Policeman could be forgiven for forgetting his manners!

What do others think??

ETA: In the interests of full disclosure, I personally use the F word and probably a lot more than I should, but so far I don't think I've ever said it in front of DS. I wouldn't be happy about him saying it (he's not even 2 yet so it's not an issue for us atm).

Edited by pumpkino

To be honest, my children arent up at 7.30pm so it doesnt concern me as to whats said on the TV. I'm more concerned about Thomas telling his father to get fu*ked. He's learned this at preschool, we dont swear around our children at all.

If you don't like what is on the tv, change the channel. Also I personally wouldn't have a program like that on if DS was up.

Agree with what the others have said though!

isnt it amazing how desensitised we've become!!, its when our kids that watch the news and start to ask questions about what they are seeing that we realise the impact it has on them.the news generally has a warning prior some pieces about language or graphic content so i think its up to parents to decide what there kids should or should not watch.