The South African Broadcasting Corporation’s (SABC) third channel has been reprimanded for not adding the appropriate age restriction of 13 plus on an episode of the soap-opera “All My Children”.
The Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa (BCCSA) confirmed the complaint today.
“The complaint was upheld and SABC 3 reprimanded for not having broadcast an age restriction of 13 plus an S classification for the relevant edition of the soapie,” Times Live quoted the commission as saying.
The complaint was made to the commission by a viewer whose children were awaiting a children’s programme, which was scheduled to start in the early afternoon.
The episode of All My Children was aired before the children’s programme started and was rated “10PG”, which means parents have the opportunity to have an educational discussion on the broadcasted scenes with their children, or simply change the channel if they feel the content is unsuitable.
The complainant told Times Live she felt the content was “highly damaging to children,” which is a problem because “so many children are already getting into underage sex”.
The commission did not find any nudity in the scenes in question, but did however find “compromising scenes of sexual foreplay”, and said a 13S rating would have been more appropriate.
SABC 3 defended itself by saying the soap-opera, which has been running for a long period of time in South Africa, had previously shown passionate kissing and no sex. The channel then offered advice to parents, telling them they should take responsibility for the content their children watch.
