Opinion: Pointless consultations dooms decent society

This week the BSA announced it would be launching a consultation process to see if free-to-air TV still needs to use timebands and classification labels or if they have become obsolete. Photo / 123RF

It's long been established that bureaucracy went mad quite some time ago. You'd think by now it would have ceased being so maddening to learn of another example but nope. Stupidity, like my rage at such stupidity, knows no bounds.

This week the Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA) announced it would be launching a time-consuming and costly consultation process to see if free-to-air TV still needs to use timebands and classification labels or if they have become obsolete in this day and age of myriad, internet-based, viewing options.

Yo BSA! I got your answers: Yes, yes and yes. You can send the "consultation" cheque straight here to the office, cheers.

What a farcical waste of time and effort and money. Let's run through them one by one and look at why.

The timeband dictates what shows can and can't screen before a certain time on free-to-air TV. You can liken them to The Wall in Game of Thrones. Only here the fortification is to defend innocents' eyes from the onslaught of adult-orientated material rather than the realm of man from unstoppable snow zombies.

So no snow zombies killing everyone on TVNZ, Three, Maori TV or Prime until after the kids are safely tucked up in bed.

Sure, it sounds a quaint notion considering you can flick over to any of Sky's channels, log on the various demand services like Netflix or even stream good ol' free YouTube and get your fill of sex, drugs and/or violence at any time of the day or night. And maybe it is. But right now, timebands aren't hurting anyone, they keep kids from seeing stuff they shouldn't - at least a little bit - and they help keep the facade of decency alive. And when you have young kids that's reassuring.

The other thing the BSA feels it needs to consult about is whether the classification system should change from the straightforward G (General), PGR (Parental Guidance Recommended) and AO (Adults Only) ratings to the more convoluted and pointless G, PG, M (Mature), 16 and 18. I can see an argument for swapping AO to M but distinguishing between 16, 18 and As ... what's the point? There's none.

The BSA reckons it has research that shows only 29 per cent of parents use these classifications to restrict what their kids can watch. This number tells me that New Zealand is full of dumbass adults who are lousy parents. It does not suggest we should be consulting about rating systems or considering making them more useless, it suggests we need some serious parental guidance services.

Because if you're the kind of parent that needs an AO rating to realise that, ya know, perhaps the slippery-bodied contestants of Heartbreak Island aren't exactly going to be appropriate viewing for your 8-year-old kid then - newsflash - you're a bad parent.

Tinkering at the edges and putting a 16 rating on a show instead of an AO one is not going to fix this problem. At that age teens are gonna watch all the snow zombies and slippery bodies they want. But that doesn't matter because they're not the target market for these classifications. They're really there for the young 'uns.

The timeband and classifications work in tandem, both indicating whether it's cool for your kid to watch a show or if they really shouldn't. Just because a whole lot of numbskulls choose to ignore these does not mean they should be abandoned.

Yes, the days of the family gathering around the telly to watch free-to-air TV together are nearing their end, and the BSA admits as much, but does that mean we should abandon the pretence of living in a civilised society?

I hope not. TVNZ have been chomping at the timeband recently, there's little doubt the aforementioned Heartbreak Island should have screened later, and I'm aware that this all sounds a bit fuddy duddy or "get off my lawn".

But when you have kids this is the kind of stuff you have to think about. Whether you want to or not.

Whatever this consultation is costing is not worth the money. This really is obvious stuff. Yes, the timeband should be preserved, yes, the ratings classification should stay as they are and, yes, all of this is fast becoming obsolete anyway. But that doesn't mean they should go.

It's easy to race to the bottom. But the prize isn't worth winning.