Comcast agrees with angry parent: no more close encounters between porn channels and kids’ channels in program guide
Posted on May 28th, 2009 – 3:01 PMBy James Shiffer
So what do adult movies like “Busty Virgins” and “Young and Horny” have to do with a Disney family comedy like “Dadnapped”?
Nothing, except that such titles show up right next to each other on Comcast’s on-screen program guide. The channel numbers of newly added high-definition family networks put them cheek-by-jowl with pay-per-view porn.
Earlier this month, Ian Goodson discovered this close encounter. It disturbed him, because his 9-year-old daughter regularly checks the programming guide to see what’s playing on ABC Family HD and Disney HD. Even though all she might see is a few suggestive words, rather than the programs themselves, Goodson does not want his daughter to stumble upon the obscene while seeking out the wholesome.
“At noon there’s pornography right above the kids’ channel stuff,” Goodson, 28, a sales rep who lives in Minnetonka. “It just doesn’t make any logical sense at all.”
Goodson contacted Whistleblower, and Whistleblower contacted Comcast. The cable TV giant has concluded the listing makes no logical sense to it, either.
As a result, Comcast is changing its program guide for all of Twin Cities customers. Now the guide will display blocks of dummy channels to put a healthy distance between the listings for family HD and pay-per-view channels on the guide, said Mary Beth Schubert, Comcast’s vice president of corporate affairs in the Twin Cities.
Schubert pointed out that Comcast already offers a way for parents to screen out unwanted content, including the “rather graphic” titles on the guide, using the remote. Details are available online or by calling 1-866-781-1888.
Still, Comcast recognized it had to do more about the unfortunate juxtaposition.
“It wasn’t customer friendly,” Schubert said.
19 Responses to “Comcast agrees with angry parent: no more close encounters between porn channels and kids’ channels in program guide”
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May 28th, 2009 at 3:34 pm
Ian Goodson needs to read the manual. If you have kids you should be taking advantage of the parental controls. Stop expecting businesses to do your job and stop being angry when you haven’t done everything you can to protect your children.
May 28th, 2009 at 3:38 pm
*Phew* Now just as long as kids never learn how to scroll the channel list, they’ll be perfectly safe from the porn…
May 28th, 2009 at 3:46 pm
Marc,
The customer is always right. Now go find somewhere else to troll.
May 28th, 2009 at 3:54 pm
I agree with Mark. There are many simple steps put in place to block these channels. Why can’t people figure this out for themselves anymore. Seems like it is easier to point fingers.
And Arenal, you are the troll.
May 28th, 2009 at 4:18 pm
It has been like that for months. While I agree with them moving it on the guide, I personally found some humor in it. Like Marc says as well as the article, there are parental controls for this exact reason.
May 28th, 2009 at 4:24 pm
BS. Why don’t they require a customer to “turn on” the adult listings instead of the other way around? Because they make a ton of money off of them. I’ve seen the titles for some of those movies and I don’t want my kids seeing them either. There’s enough sh*t out there creeping under the parents radar without their knowledge. If you want the programming then go find it. There’s already enough crap for parents to stay on top of.
May 28th, 2009 at 4:31 pm
I have Dish, and the guide is similiar.
May 28th, 2009 at 4:36 pm
To Jon - Does some of that “Sh*t creeping under the radar” include people commenting on a public website using explicit language and using an asterisk
to “H*de” its vulgarity?
May 28th, 2009 at 5:24 pm
Perhaps they should change the rules to require that instructions be included so that a box can be set to not even acknowledge that a particular channel even exists - lock it out of the screen, lock it out of the program guide, and simply refuse to go to that channel unless one goes into the menu and manually unlocks it.
May 28th, 2009 at 5:28 pm
FYI I just got off the phone with Comcast again. There is no way to make it so that those titles do not display on the types of boxes that they use in our market. It is not possible.