Written by Azuka Onwuka - Nigeria
This is the era of sex marketing. If you turn right, sex leaps into your face; if you turn left, sex jumps at you. In the street, in the shopping mall, in the church, in the office, on your computer and phone, and even in your living room, sex chases you around.
Sex – subtle or barefaced – has become all-pervasive in our society. Our society has become so sex-charged that the safety of our children is no longer guaranteed. Before, the rule was that during the children's belt on TV, materials with adult content were not shown. These days, the only things that are not shown on our TV from morning to about 10 pm are commercials of alcoholic beverages. Any other thing goes. At such periods, TV stations are competing on which will show more Mexican soaps featuring deep kissing and erotic scenes every five minutes. Almost all the stations dedicate about two hours per day to music videos with bikini-clad girls dancing with men with lewd abandon.
Then there are the so-called Nigerian and Ghanaian home videos that are anything but homely. Even though many of these films are rated 16 or 18, they are shown on regular TV stations during the day when children are home watching TV. Even within early news bulletins when families are expected to be watching TV, film trailers with smooching scenes are advertised. What do you do? Ban your children from watching TV? That is not an option for me. The only thing within my power is that I have ensured that they do not watch any TV/video material that is rated over 13. But what do I do when these adult materials are slotted into family belts?