Over the past couple of hours, I have been using both the BBC iPlayer, and Channel 4’s new Watch Online service to generally catch-up on shows that I have missed while deep in a fever in my bed. To be honest, it is only recently that I have realised how much time has past since I had seen telly, eaten any food, or even had a simple shower. My eyes are still iffy, and even using this laptop to type this is more difficult than it would normally be, however I am amazed and shocked about the information that had been broadcast by the Channel 4 broadcaster about the web and how young people use it to access porn.

As this series of the show is called “Sex Education vs. Pornography”, I was interested to how the programme makers would try to include the two subjects in to the mix. I thought that the main purpose of the show would have been about teenagers asking questions that they had seen or heard from porn, and their experts would say “No dear…” and go on to explain what actually happens.

Now some of this did happen, and the show did use real male and female models naked to illustrate their points across to help educate the students, which seemed to work effectively. However a majority of the two episodes I have seen are a rampage about how the web should be censored, and how it’s the government and businesses that should be making sure our intertubes are safe for teenagers to roam. In fact more air time was about the whole internet ‘problems’ (with each commercial break returning with the same 3 or 4 facts about how dangerous the web actually is and YOUR teenagers are accessing this nasty material), than about the sexual explanations and discussions themselves.

In my view, this was an awful ‘Daily Mail’ type scare-mongering, than actual help for the young people needing the support that the programme supposedly says they need. The ONLY common sense came from Mike Galvin the MD of “21st Century Customer Experience” at BT (What a cool title!), who basically said that if the parents are skipping the stage that sets up the parental controls for their internet access, then it is their own fault – which is perfectly reasonable. In the next shot, the presenter has a go at BT for “…put[ting] the ball firmly back in the court of the Parents. So if you want to protect your child from porn, it is initially down to you” in a very disgusted and outdone presenting fashion. This is unfair for the programme makers to make these statements and make it sound like it is BT’s, or anyone else’s fault. For once, the buck has to stop at the parents, and no excuses of “I didn’t know how to turn the parental controls on” will work – they are right there on the install disc as they setup their broadband connection.

I just wish that they spent less time trying to restrict and manipulate the web in the UK (which is already happening with other self-appointed organisations and the government), and spent more time actually helping the teenagers they supposedly are really concerned about.