Ofcom Discussion

Sky Parental Controls & Ofcom


Hi, I recently had my Nieces round to stay for a couple of days and to avoid them accidently watching any of the Babe/Adult channels on my Sky+ box I changed the Parental Settings to Family & Restricted the Adult Viewing (18).

After they left I reset my box settings to what they were before, only to find that when I go on the free Babe channels 902, 906, 912, etc, either in the daytime or at night, I have to enter my pin number every time which I never had to do before. Interestingly, this does not apply to channel 945 even for their night shows.

After checking out the Sky Forums and 2 long phone conversations with Sky, it turns out apparently, that there is absolutely no way I can remove the need to enter my pin, even with a hard reset and that there's nothing Sky can do about it as it was all set in place by Ofcom. I don't subscribe to Sky Movies or any porn channels.

I've got 2 questions.

1. Does anybody know anyway I can remove this pin restriction and revert my system so that I don't have to type it in every time I switch from BabeStation to Studio 66 to Expanded?

2. Is it true what Sky say about Ofcom forcing them to do this? Surely Ofcom cannot control what we, as adults, watch?

Can anybody help?

Thanks

(24-12-2015 06:58 )midnightuser76 Wrote:  2. Is it true what Sky say about Ofcom forcing them to do this? Surely Ofcom cannot control what we, as adults, watch?

The requirement to put in your PIN does not control what you watch - unless you don't know what your PIN is of course.

The only relevant rule I've heard of is that age rated programmes are required to request a PIN if they're shown before the watershed time. This has always been the case and is an OFCOM requirement. So it's true that Sky are forced to do this.

I've never heard of a PIN being required for adult programmes or channels which are broadcast after the watershed time, which is what you are experiencing. That's a new one to me. I mean any channel could potentially show adult content after the watershed.

(24-12-2015 11:18 )BarrieBF Wrote:  I mean any channel could potentially show adult content after the watershed.

Very true. BBC1 could be showing something 18 rated at night, so if the adult channels need a PIN then so should BBC1.

Basically our civil liberties are being taken away from us.

If I can't watch what I want,when I want without fucking about like this as an adult,to me it means England isn't a free country anymore.

How can Ofcom do this?

Didn't millions of allied soldiers die in WW2 so we wouldn't have to suffer any form of dictatorship?

It's a funny country, England. I personally love most of England, but sometimes there's an odd way of thinking when it comes to censorship.

Seeing full nudity on babe channels is too obscene, yet Ofcom has no problem with soda commercials taking the piss out of men in a sexually discriminatory way that demeans them. There's a big incentive to feminize men on TV and in movies, and especially in commercials, as there is to see them humiliated at times.

Also, nude body parts on the babe channels is too much, yet we can see far more on non babe channels, under the disguise of it being for education reasons or for comedy.

8am morning shows? No prob, let's see some male bare ass, and some men cupping their penises. All cheeky fun eh?

While this comparison might not hold any weight for some of you, I still find it odd how the babe channels are so heavily censored most of the time, yet kids can walk out in London and see nude men and women on balconies taking explicit photos for magazines, and all is well... What would be worse for a parent, noticing their child watching a babe channel, or noticing their child watching a man and woman in public view, naked and acting sexually?

Naked bike race? Sure, why not, it's all cheeky fun eh? Ugh oh, that horrible monster of a man accidentally got aroused because he was surrounded by nude women!!!! OMG, let's arrest him, or threaten to arrest him, and let's make him feel like a piece of sh*t sex offender, because GOD forbid anyone have a natural reaction to other nude people!!!! Hmmm, maybe a better common sense decision would be to, um, NOT have a naked bike race in public from now on, if the police and other women are going to freak out at any sign of a person being aroused. Stupid fucking people!

I heard about a similar thing at Yale university, during those infamous naked parties. A man got a little aroused at one party, because everyone was nude, including beautiful women, and instead of handling it in a mature manner, the part organizers threatened to kick him out and ban him. Ummm, what did you expect at a fucking nude party??? Of course there's going to be some arousal, duh!

There's a weird hypocrisy at times.

^Just a pity a meteorite can't just appear from the heavens and drop onto Ofcom headquarters when they're having a meeting, thus getting rid of them in one go. Although the government would just create another group of regulators, so another meteorite would just have to fall onto parliament as well.

Another two new board members for Ofcom announced in the quango merry-go-round.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/cultu...s-at-ofcom

Bill Emmott, who is the new chairman of the Content Board ("a committee of the main Board" that oversees the TV regs), is a journalist who at least has some background in production. He replaces Tim Gardam.

Btw, the non-exec director positions they were advertising last October had a commitment of one or two days a week with a salary of £42,519 per annum.

Good post Mmann - especially the points about the sheer double standards and hypocrisy in adverts that demean and objectify and humiliate men. If the Diet Coke adverts were reversed in the gender narratives there would be uproar.

Another appointment: Former ATVOD board member parachuted into Ofcom's content board.

http://media.ofcom.org.uk/news/2016/ofco...ent-board/

Ofcom seem to have left the babechannels alone recently, (which is obviously a good thing). I think the last time any of the shows were penalised was June 2014.

This is hardly suprising due to the overly strict self censorship carried out by the channels!
The night shows are a waste of time now.
Just look at how much the quality of the shows have declined in just this 1 and a half year period. It is drastic.

It is time for the shows to start upping the quality of their content again to at least get their shows back up to the standard of June 2014.
Ofcom weren't concerned with majority of the shows in that period it was just 2 shows where just a slight mistake was made.

Ofcom during that period were targeting the shows more which is why they picked up on these incidents, (unless another channel grassed the other up, but thats a different story).

As for the dayshows a lot more tease and movement could be put into the shows without alerting ofcom.