I watch the TV Guide Channel more than I need to and recently they've aired this new special called Sex on TV. It's all about the history of TV, censorship, rules/regulations, and the breaking of those rules/regulations. All this made me step back and think: Have we lost values to become trendy? It wasn't just this special that made me realize this; I've notice little changes over the years to push the boundaries. In the 90s, I clearly remember certain words being censored, but now, they're perfectly fine to say. Is this just a trend to stay modern? If so... have we lost our values?

What does everyone else think?

I'd say that people are simply wising up. There is no way to stop these things from penetrating society, and the government knows it.

If a kid hears a bad word that is censored on TV, they'll ask everyone what it was until they get an answer. That's how kids are. It's the same thing with sex. If we censor out breasts or whatever, the kids will only be more curious about it.

Now, I'm not saying I support this action. It's just that there aren't really many other options available.

Well, being of a Christian bias, I support more of a tight-lipped kind of thing. Sure, they're gonna learn about it eventually, but you really don't want them to learn about some things too early. It desensitizes them. I mean, if you've got kids watching sex scenes in PG-13 movies, then they won't think as much of it as they probably should as they see more and more of it.

Well, here's my take:

• Language is language. Its a word that people who speak the same language you do will find offensive. They may not even know what it means. Simply put, you are free to say whatever you want as long as it doesn't directly hurt someone's credibility - that much is a god-given human right.
• Sex is a part of nature. Its the #1 most ingrained thing in every single mammal and several non-mammals as well. If people don't have sex, they cease to exist as a species. And moreover, sex is the physical act of love: if you're going to censor sex, you should also censor "I love you" form TV. Moreover, in the case of straight-up pornography, you're just dealing with something that people find pleasurable; its not exactly hurting anybody - quite the opposite.
• Violence is a part of nature, but unlike sex which results in the creation of nature, violence results in its death. Because of violence life ceases to exist, and violence only causes harm. Though Hollywood violence isn't real, it still propagates the idea of the destruction of life. Really, violence should not be shown on TV, nor should it be enjoyed by the people who watch it, nor should it generally be admired.

It's not the sex that's offensive. It's how they glamourize sex to make stupid teens want to do it to appear cool. I can see I failed with this topic. Instead of an actual discussion, everyone doesn't seem to care. You have all lost your values. If you had a little 3 or 4-year-old, would you let them watch hard core porn? Because that's the sense I'm getting.

I'm not bound my religious beliefs, but allowed young generations to be exposed to this is just wrong, regardless of if it happens or if it's trendy to show it. There is a reason we have ratings for movies and a rating system for TV.

I think this is up to the parents. If the parents let their kids watch Spike TV, where everyone knows of its strong sexual and violent content which is obviously directed at adults, then it's not the fault of society, the network, or the government. Only the parent.

Also, this has nothing to do with hardcore porn. You're over exagerrating. The only station that I've ever seen show hardcore porn is HBO near midnight once in a while. Every other station still has enough morals to know not to show that stuff. There is a big difference between explicit sex and a bare nipple.

I don't think the issue is just showing sex in the first place, as showing a married couple doing that and raising a family or a devoted loving couple is perfectly acceptable. However, what many shows do is show promiscuous behavior among adults or young people, or teenagers making very poor life decisions at a younger age which can negatively effect their whole lives, and the shows often don't show just how bad it can be.

For example, out of a very poor decision-making process I decided to watch an episode of The Secret Life of the American Teenager. In this particular episode, it centered around a high school girl who got pregnant after she and her boyfriend had sex together, and she decided to keep it and is now raising it. Now, the boyfriend and some other guy who likes her are competing in a way to take care of the baby to win the heart of the girl. Also, the girl is completely able to keep going to school while remaining in the "popular" group and her biggest problem is having to take care of the baby while the other kids go to a party.

I mean come ON. More often than not, the guy will just disappear upon hearing that a child is involved, parents won't be happy, the new mother will have troubles in school and very likely ostracized from the other students, or even have medical problems from the birth. Meanwhile, TV shows like this make having a baby seem like hardly a problem or issue since everyone involved supports and loves you no matter what.

Thankfully there are programs that show the darker side of a teenage pregnancy, but the fact is that these shows don't get nearly enough attention as TV trash like what I mentioned above.