Socks?

[Adam]

Originally Posted by Oz Referee

Yeah I have always found it amusing at how censored American TV shows are, compared to Australian programs. I have never (that I can recall) seen a mainstream US show that uses the F (or even S) word, or directly mentions things like abortion. While these are much more prevalent in Australian made programs (not suggesting this is better/worse, just different).

Considering that we have no Bill of Rights or constitutional right to the freedom of speech, I find it kind of ironic that it appears that the US mainstream media is more censored than ours.

Freedom of speech was, essentially, to ensure freedom of political speech. Censoring obscenities does not affect political speech, so many feel it is less of an issue. Others feel that any censorship is bad, as it eventually spreads.

We may have a bit more censorship of the obscenities, but our libel laws are a bit more geared towards the speaker than in other countries.

While the language and nudity are certainly censored by the FCC here, topical restrictions are purely market driven. Stations aren't prohibited from airing the stuff, they just shy away from it because viewers won't want to see it.

Originally Posted by Oz Referee

This did nothing to help the problem, in fact has just made more young people drink spirits that they mix themeselves.
As well, there is some talk that the Australian government is going to ban ALL advertising of alcohol, including sponsorship of sporting events/teams. Will be interesting to see if that has any impact - it seemed to work when the same ban was put in place for tobacco.
As a high school teacher, I am very interested in seeing what happens with these issues......

Interesting that your government could ban such a thing. Not even possible here due to, well, free speech issues.
I'm curious, have smoking rates gone down in your country?