The UK government broadcast regulator has received near-1,000 complaints over Naked Education, a television programme which purports to push “body positive” ideas by exposing children in their mid-teens to naked adults.
Channel 4, the UK state-owned but commercially funded broadcaster which has generally prided itself on producing edgy content as a foil to the more mainstream BBC offering has moved to defend its latest pushing of the envelope with Naked Education, in which teenagers look at naked adults and discuss their bodies. Per The Daily Telegraph the broadcaster called the programme “valuable public service broadcasting”.
Much of the concern surrounding the programme appears to revolve around a differential in conceptions of what it is appropriate for children under the age of consent to be exposed to on television. The show is broadcast before the ‘watershed’ begins — the Ofcom-defined period of nine-o’clock at night and five-o’clock in the morning where adult content can be broadcast — and is made for teenagers, despite the content.
Now the UK broadcast regulator has received an avalanche of complaints after the first episode of the programme aired, with 930 complaints relating to concerns over nudity being shown on television before the aforementioned watershed, and children “aged 14-16” in the programme being exposed to it. The Times reports the regulator will now decide whether to launch an investigation based on the complaints.
The broadcaster hit back at those complaining, implying they may be attacking the show from a position of ignorance, insisting through a senior spokesman that: “Anyone who suggests that Naked Education promotes paedophilia or is abusive of children almost certainly hasn’t watched it.”
Naked Attraction has been gathering attention before it broadcast after it was revealed one episode in the series would be exposing children to the bodies of two “transgender men”. The episode, which has yet to air, has been praised by British newspaper The Metro as a “truly powerful moment”.