MTV is known for its racy shows especially reality TV shows. This time however, MTV may have gone over the line with their newest show, “Skins” which premiered last Monday. The controversial new show is about a group of teenagers who go to every kind of mischief and misbehavior. Because of the content of the show, an article posted by New York Times lampooned it, Taco Bell, a fast food chain, announced that they will no longer be airing their commercials with future episodes of Skins. A spokesman from the food chain said that the show would not fit the image of their brand, though they will still be airing on other timeslots in MTV.
The show generated show much attention that allegedly producers of the show got worried of possible chargers of child pornography. There have been reports that executives of MTV already ordered edits to the episode that will be shown in January 31 as apparently, the episode will feature one of the teenagers, Chris who suffers from side effects of an erectile-dysfunction drug. Unfortunately, the actor who plays Chris is Jesse Carere who is just 17 years old.
The Parents Television Council (PTC) already cited the show as very dangerous for children. At the first episode alone there was a reported 42 counts of reference to drugs and alcohol, a figures significantly higher compared to shows of the same genre such as Degrassi.
Although MTV already reported that the show Skins will be only for mature viewers and that the timeslot has been moved to a later time to keep young viewers away, there have been hits and misses. So far, surveys show that 1.2 million viewers were below 18 years old and that the pre-roll screen did not show any age-gate limit at all.
Usually shows like Skins usually have actors that are older and pretending to be underage to prevent any lawsuits, MTV however casted actors well inside the age group of 15-19. Still critics argue that it isn’t just the fact that most of the actors are underage, the contents itself borders sex, drug addiction and substance abuse.
Brian, Michigan