MANILA, Philippines—Television is supposed to be a “for general patronage” medium, because it’s on at all hours of the day and night, and impressionable children watch it all the time. Sometimes, however, stringent rules get relaxed and alarmingly graphic images end up startling viewers on that supposedly “safe” TV screen.

Some years ago, a small cable-TV station jolted viewers out of sleepy slumberland by (inadvertently?) airing parts of a porno movie. Then, there came the time when a racy TV soap stretched the limits of what it was permitted to show and say, and got into trouble with the country’s official censorship body.

European sojourn

These thoughts come to mind because we’ve just came back from a two-week European sojourn that took us to four countries, during which we were exposed to some pretty graphic images on that small TV screen. We were nonplussed to see that, in the interim since our last European jaunt, things had gone from graphic to occasionally gross.

On one European channel, a naked man and woman shared a bathtub with many of their primary and secondary external sexual characteristics unimpeded from public view. On another, a graphic and extended bed scene singed viewers’ eyebrows.

But, what took the cake was a really long TV Shopping feature on, of all things, a really mean-looking and apparently turbo-charged—vibrator! The powers of the revved-up sex gadget were praised in great detail by a very enthusiastic female pitchperson, who was then followed by a male counterpart, whose fascinating function was to assure male viewers that the fact that their female partners used the gadget didn’t reflect badly on their macho skills and powers.

Thank goodness, local viewers are spared such overly enthusiastic demonstrations and endorsements. And, we’re not even talking about the sexy play-for-pay porn TV productions available for private viewing by some hotels’ guests.

That last thought reminds us of the time when, decades ago, we visited a friend abroad and found him watching a “sex TV” cable channel whose programs included—a “nude news” show with all of the male and female anchors reporting the news in their birthday suits. To make things worse, our friends’ kids were also in the room.

Limits

Let’s thank our lucky stars that we’ve been spared all that, as well. Conservatives may get a bad rap, but there are limits.

The fact that some televiewing times and climes have thrown the baby out with the bathwater in terms of “freedom” can’t distract us from the fact that television is an “open” medium, so impressionable young viewers should be protected from graphic TV fare that they’re too young to comfortably process and handle.