In public surveys, parents express concerns about the effects that exposure to foul language, sex, and violence on television has on their children. A new study from the Parents Television Council, a nonprofit group that describes its mission as being to restore responsibility and decency to the entertainment industry, suggests that such exposure is on the upswing. It catalogues a growing instance of what it describes as "objectionable content" on network television during the family hour. The family hour time slot includes programs with a start time between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday and between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. on Sundays. The study found 2,246 instances of violent, profane and sexual content in 180 hours of original family hour programming, or 12.48 instances per television hour. Only 10.6 percent of the 208 episodes were free of any violent and sexual content and foul language. Since 2000-2001, violent content during the family hour has increased by 52.4 percent and sexual content has increased by 22.1 percent. The Fox network ranked as the overall worst offender, with 20.78 instances of objectionable content per hour. The network's American Dad was the worst offender with a total of 52 instances of objectionable content per hour. The study said only four programs with no objectionable content were game shows/reality competitions: Deal or No Deal (NBC), Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader? (Fox), Identity (NBC), and Grease: You're the One That I Want (NBC). They had no objectionable content, assuming you are not a TV critic.

Network Content and Changes Since 2000-2001