As a parent, you can face some difficult moments. Children seem to be growing up faster than ever these days and that curiosity bump just seems be getting bigger as the years go by. You can never be sure what questions they will ask next. Some of the most dangerous words a child learns are “Why” and “How”. Before you know it they will be asking why we die and how we make babies. You dread the moment you will be asked how your neighbors can be married when they are both men. And then there are those ads for erectile dysfunction drugs on the TV. You hope you have your children safe from the world. You checked the schedule, picking the harmless programs to watch. You fiddled with the filter on the television itself and the PC to lock out the “adult” content. But daytime television is no longer so safe. At any time, your child can be asking the “what’s an erection?” question you so love to answer.

Well, the Parents Television Council (PTC) is trying to do something about this. Although most of the media advocacy groups are hustling political agendas, the PTC has a more general point to argue with the television and cable companies. It believes there’s too much sex, drugs, rock n’ roll, violence and “profanity” – a lovely word meaning anything you disagree with. Except, of course, the cable companies are not inclined to listen. If you, the parents, are paying for the content, it’s your problem to police who watches it. Cable has already dismissed the PTC’s complaints about the ads. This is somewhat ironic because research shows our children spend more of their time watching cable than broadcast. But this is a freedom of speech issue as well and cable is not about to back down.

The problem for the drug companies is they buy a number of ads and leave it to the television/cable companies to place them where there’s the best chance of reaching their target demographic. Most of the time, they don’t know in advance where the ads will air. This puts the pressure squarely on the television companies which decide where to place the ads. During the weekday slots, there’s little chance men with problems will be home. Although there’s an argument the ads can be aimed at the women suffering from denied sexual activity, the target audience of men over the age of 50 is most likely to be home during the evenings and weekends. That’s why the manufacturers are now big sponsors of sporting events and want the ads placed during news programs, current affairs and documentaries. There have been bills introduced in Washington to ban ads until after 10 p.m. but they never made progress.

This attempt by PTC is probably not going to make progress but, with Levitra and the other drugs appearing so often, political pressure to operate some kind of watershed or safe harbor when racy ads can be shown is going to build. Family values are strong among the more conservative groups. Sooner or later, politicians will get the message and press television companies to be more “sensitive” when it shows Levitra and other ads.