Is MTV's Skins Child Pornography?

[snooper2]

Source: TIME

In a fascinating front-page New York Times story this morning, Brian Stelter reports that some executives at MTV were worried that some scenes in the new teen drama just might be, and are ordering producers to edit some Skins episodes accordingly:

It is unclear when MTV first realized that the show may be vulnerable to child pornography charges. On Tuesday, a flurry of meetings took place at the network's headquarters in New York, according to an executive who attended some of the meetings and spoke only on the condition of anonymity. In one of the meetings, the executives wondered aloud who could possibly face criminal prosecution and jail time if the episodes were broadcast without changes.

I'm not a lawyer, nor do I play one on TV, but the concerns seem to stem from the fact that many of the actors who play teens on the show (as in the original British version) are under 18. So while there's not live sex on camera—having seen four episodes in advance, I actually found the series' depictions of drugs more unusual for American TV than its sex scenes—the definition of pornography is trickier when underage actors are involved.



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[MrSlayer]

1. MTV Get off the Air!!

Fun Fun Fun in the fluffy chair
Flame up the herb
Woof down the beer

Hi
I'm your video DJ
I always talk like I'm wigged out on quaaludes
I wear a satin baseball jacket everywhere I go

My job is to help destroy
What's left of your imagination
By feeding you endless doses
Of sugar-coated mindless garbage

So don't create
Be sedate
Be a vegetable at home
And thwack on that dial
If we have our way even you will believe
This is the future of rock and roll

How far will you go
How low will you stoop
To tranquilize our minds with your sugar-coated swill

You've turned rock and roll rebellion
Into Pat Boone sedation
Making sure nothing's left to the imagination

M.T.V. Get off the
M.T.V. Get off the
M.T.V. Get off the air
Get off the air

See the latest rejects from the muppet show
Wag their tits and their dicks
As they lip-synch on screen
There's something I don't like
About a band who always smiles
Another tax write-off
For some schmuck who doesn't care

M.T.V. Get off the air
And so it was
Our beloved corporate gods
Claimed they created rock video
Allowing it to sink as low in one year
As commercial TV has in 25
"It's the new frontier," they say
It's wide open, anything can happen
But you've got a lot of nerve
To call yourself a pioneer
When you're too god-damn conservative
To take real chances.

Tin-eared
Graph-paper brained accountants
Instead of music fans
Call all the shots at giant record companies now

The lowest common denominator rules
Forget honesty
Forget creativity
The dumbest buy the mostest
That's the name of the game

But sales are slumping
And no one will say why
Could it be they put out one too many lousy records?!?

M.T.V.-Get off the air!

NOW!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOBfpHv1VcI

Even more relevant today than it was then.

[Javaman]

9. Oh were are the of DK's today?

Jello still speaks the truth, but sadly, he gets no attention by the media anymore.

[Fire Walk With Me]

17. "Truth" and "media" are probably the problem...not much room in the media for truth.

On the other hand, MTV are marketing geniuses. Just like the crack cocaine dealer.

SIGH, I miss the Dead Kennedies as well, all the more mightily from these posts. No one is battering the assholes like that anymore, and it sorely needs doing.

[David__77]

2. Oh for fuck's sake... the British version is far superior and has more nudity anyway.

The powers-that-be are so puritanical it's ridiculous. Teenagers have sex, OK!

[onehandle]

3. That 70's Show featured young actors having sex and using drugs every week.

At least one of which (Mila Kunis) was under 18.

Where was the 'outrage' then?

[Democat]

4. People under 18 have sex?

Who would have known if not for this groundbreaking show on MTV?

[HankyDubs]

5. people still watch MTV?

maybe only the pederasts do.

[Javaman]

10. They should get rid of the M part of MTV.

when was the last time they actually showed a music video?

[msongs]

6. MTV is still around? hmmm nt

[TreasonousBastard]

7. STOP CALLING IT CHILD PORNOGRAPHY! Jesus Christ in a cardigan sweater, the age of consent...

is 18 in only 10 states. Damn near half of them it's 16, and I seem to remember one where it's 15, but that's not on this list:

http://www.ageofconsent.us/

For some curious reason beyond my comprehension, in most of the country 17 year olds can fuck freely, but can not have nekkid pictures taken of them or work in porn. I suspect it's fear of prosecution in one of those 18 years states, but it's bizarre nonetheless.

Child porn is something entirely different and there's no discussion on how bad that is. It's just bad.

[onager]

15. California's even weirder, as usual...

Out here, it's perfectly legal to hire all the 18-year-old females you want to appear in hard-core porn flicks.

But if you buy an 18-year-old female a beer, both of you can go to jail. The legal drinking age is 21.

[PatrynXX]

19. Yeah CA is the only sate....

Where it's legal in porn to film unprotected sex. Cream Pie's anyone?? I assume the girls are on heavy birth control pills.

and as a fellow perv... I wish idiotic moronic brainless perv's would quit begging Nikki Sims to do nude. Except for the accidental whoops I was paying attention to my pussy and forgot about anything above the waist.... webshow Nikki Sims is in the tease genre. Which is like trying to get Cannibal Corpse to sing country. Well that is extreme but it's a different genre. When and if she wants to do something like that, that's on her terms.

Then you've got Keira Knightly who had her parents okay to do a topless scene when she was under age in whatever movie (Holes??)

[whathehell]

16. Can't "fuck freely" and/or work in porn at age fifteen - the age of youngest actor in MTV show

Sorry, Treasonous Bastard.:eyes:

[zbdent]

8. can't be "child pornography" ... at least, in the Catholic Priests' defenders' eyes ...

I mean, one was on NPR saying that it wasn't "pedophilia" since it was with boys who had hit puberty ...

then again, the law was changed to make it "pornography" even when the naughty bits are covered with clothing ... go figure ...

[alp227]

11. if it is the feds would've shut it down

i mean a fed court has shut down LimeWire. The Parents Television Council famously accused a GQ photoshoot of Glee cast members of "bordering on pedophilia". That's a pretty sensitive legal line right there. As of now the FBI hasn't raided the GQ magazine offices yet. If Skins is indeed child porn MTV would be in court today right?

[Iggo]

12. No...unless you think it is...then Yes. (n/t)

[chrisa]

13. Parents Television Council is such epic fail.

Another show for people to whine about, completely ignoring that this is part of a larger cultural issue.

[qazplm]

14. at the federal level

no so long as the actors are over 18.

Although if a 17 year old ever engaged in lewd or lascivious exhibition, then it would technically be yes.

[Syrinx]

18. haven't seen it, but I would tend to doubt it