HBO Pissed Me Off!

Dr. Cheese · #1 01-23-2010, 03:49 PM

Last night, I was letting my kids watch the HBO kids channel which was showing "Babe: A Pig in the City." When it went off, I saw that "Eighth Grade Confessions," was coming on, but I nodded off. I know HBO confession shows can be raunchy, but I figured, what would they have kids saying?

When I woke up, I see my nine year old riveted to the screen listening to a girl talk about given her botfriend "head" (her words) after six months. Flipped the channel immediately!

I'm not a prude, but I felt sexually explicit talk on a kids channel was out of bounds. I also felt it was really exploitive to have a 13 or 14 year girl on TV, with her face exposed, and her voice unaltered talking about performing sex acts. I can see the argument that the program has educational value, but I have a real problem with adults putting a young girls business in the public like that.

Truktek2 · #2 01-23-2010, 04:01 PM

Sad to say, but it seems to be a sign of the times. Not only is cable overly graphic, but regular tv is no better. I can't believe how much primetime tv has changed since I was a kid. All the violence and gore must be desensitizing kids. Just look at any CSI or cop/lawyer show on now. Do they have to be that graphic? I mean c'mon.

Needless to say, I don't watch too much tv.

santucci218 · #3 01-23-2010, 04:05 PM

Your first mistake was making the decision to let your kids watch Babe: A Pig in the City

electracoyote · #4 01-23-2010, 04:06 PM

This is HBO. The channel that gave us The Sopranos and shows about prison man love. The programming is no surprise. Be more careful about nodding off when HBO is on the tube.

Dr. Cheese · #5 01-23-2010, 04:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by electracoyote

This is HBO. The channel that gave us The Sopranos and shows about prison man love. The programming is no surprise. Be more careful about nodding off when HBO is on the tube.

Point taken, but I am angry that the show in question was on a kid's oriented HBO channel. It was not supposed to be an adult oriented channel.

electracoyote · #6 01-23-2010, 04:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dr. Cheese

Point taken, but I am angry that the show in question was on a kid's oriented HBO channel. It was not supposed to be an adult oriented channel.

Oops, my bad, I missed that.

The HBO kid's channel huh. I haven't paid for HBO for a long time, I didn't know they had another format.

I'd launch a formal complaint. That would have blindsided me too.

**pacojas** · #7 01-23-2010, 04:14 PM

cartoons are very x-rated these days with those cute little characters. "Family Guy" and "The Simpson's" producers admit they can get away with racey content because the characters aren't real.

Jimmy Bones · #8 01-23-2010, 04:18 PM

I had a similar issue at a doctor's office one day (pediatrician), they had it on ABC Family, and after some Full House and other wholesomeish 80s shows, they popped on to some show where they started talking about all sorts of sexually charged stuff.

I wrote a nasty email to their HQ, but never got a reply and the show is still being aired. You'd think Disney, of all corporations, would keep filth off their subsidiaries.

Jim Campbell · #9 01-23-2010, 04:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dr. Cheese

Point taken, but I am angry that the show in question was on a kid's oriented HBO channel. It was not supposed to be an adult oriented channel.

it's probably much better that kids hear that stuff when you are in the room and able to add context etc,rather than the normal way kids learn it....and learn it they will,far sooner than you can imagine

RWP · #10 01-23-2010, 04:51 PM

It's crazy these days with everything the kids are exposed to. Even a Google image search with the 'moderate' filter on returns XXX rated porn. Pretty amazing.

bassrique · #11 01-23-2010, 05:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dr. Cheese

Last night, I was letting my kids watch the HBO kids channel which was showing "Babe: A Pig in the City." When it went off, I saw that "Eighth Grade Confessions," was coming on, but I nodded off. I know HBO confession shows can be raunchy, but I figured, what would they have kids saying?

When I woke up, I see my nine year old riveted to the screen listening to a girl talk about given her botfriend "head" (her words) after six months. Flipped the channel immediately!

I'm not a prude, but I felt sexually explicit talk on a kids channel was out of bounds. I also felt it was really exploitive to have a 13 or 14 year girl on TV, with her face exposed, and her voice unaltered talking about performing sex acts. I can see the argument that the program has educational value, but I have a real problem with adults putting a young girls business in the public like that.

It's a shame we can't relax; our guard must always be up.

Wait a minute...."HBO kids channel" ? I just caught that. Oh man......

Oral sex discussions on a kid's channel? Featuring kids?

Stanley Design · #12 01-23-2010, 06:26 PM

Sounds like too many Holden Caulfield's in here. Kids know dirtier things than you do, and they talk about it all the time when you aren't around.

Grizzly700 · #13 01-23-2010, 06:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stanley Design

Sounds like too many Holden Caulfield's in here. Kids know dirtier things than you do, and they talk about it all the time when you aren't around.

+1

If your kids are in public school then they know more than what giving head is y the time they are 10, and by the time they are 14 alot of people had already done stuff like that.

SteveC · #14 01-23-2010, 06:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pacojas

cartoons are very x-rated these days with those cute little characters. "Family Guy" and "The Simpson's" producers admit they can get away with racey content because the characters aren't real.

Yeah, but this is HBO Family - we watch it, too. We all know about Family Guy and others, but this was Babe, a movie about a pig.

electracoyote · #15 01-23-2010, 06:34 PM

We all know the realities of kids learning things at school, from friends, and other places. A lot of us parents still wish our kids could have learned it from talking with us, and we're still a little disappointed and concerned when we find that our children learned something a little too graphic, a little too soon, from a source we did not know about, trust, or endorse.

Dr. Cheese · #16 01-23-2010, 07:39 PM

I'm not naive about kids and sex. Heck, it seems like it was yesterday, and I knew 13 year old girls who were making the boys happy.

I'm not freaked out about my daughter finding out about sex, that is happening already. I just think it was pretty sad for that kind of programming to pop up on a kids channel, mixed in with family friendly movies. I also really feel for the girl on camera discussing intimate details of her personal life that will now be on the public record forever. Heck, some pervert probably recorded it and is using it for stimulation.

Gopherbassist · #17 01-23-2010, 08:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Truktek2

Sad to say, but it seems to be a sign of the times. Not only is cable overly graphic, but regular tv is no better. I can't believe how much primetime tv has changed since I was a kid. All the violence and gore must be desensitizing kids. Just look at any CSI or cop/lawyer show on now. Do they have to be that graphic? I mean c'mon.

Needless to say, I don't watch too much tv.

Because, you know, there's no violence or gore in real life. Amirite or amirite?

Kwesi · #18 01-23-2010, 09:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gopherbassist

Because, you know, there's no violence or gore in real life. Amirite or amirite?

Lol, I remember making this argument back when I was 13 trying to get my parents to buy me rated M games and watch rated R movies (they gave in eventually

)

Anyway, the problem with your assertion is that while the stuff exists it far, FAAAAR from the norm. We all know sex, drugs, violence and a whole host of other things are out there and that they've happened before and are probably happening right now. Real life is where these TV studios get their ideas. It's just that seeing an arm being chopped off, some guy shooting up, or a man an woman "together" isn't exactly something you expect to see on a daily basis. Though I guess that does depend on the kind of person you are...

These are subjects that you don't want your child to get the wrong idea about so you want to introduce it to them in a way that they can grasp the implications and consequences of it all. And even if, as a parent, you aren't the one to get to them first you still want to explain it to them in a way that they can really understand what it is.

7StringBassist · #19 01-23-2010, 09:43 PM

Have none of you seen Secret life on ABC Family of all channels and they are 15/16 yr olds talking about sex and its suppose to appeal to 12 or 11 year olds

burk48237 · #20 01-23-2010, 10:03 PM

I think one of the sadist things in our society is we don't let kids be kids. If you watch the comedy channel one of the biggest things many directors have kids do for laughs is foul language or adult humor. And if you look at the marketing of kid "stars" like Miley Cyrus whose market is 11-13 year olds and yet her moves appear to be designed to appeal to perverts and child porn producers. The same thing with twelve year old chicks running around with sexually suggestive clothing. The consequences of this stuff are not good.