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Ofcom defends 9pm watershed

Ofcom has dismissed claims by a group of MPs that the 9pm watershed is failing to protect young children because they can now access television online.
Giving evidence at a culture, media and sport committee hearing today, the Ofcom chief executive, Ed Richards, denied the regulator had put itself in an "impossible and absurd position" by not doing more to regulate objectionable content on the web.
Richards was responding to claims made by Nigel Evans, the Ribble Valley conservative MP, who argued that Ofcom's powers over broadcasting should be more rigorously applied to internet content.
"It's important to remember that the watershed isn't dead," Richards said.
"Despite the internet, television remains remarkably resilient as a medium. The watershed is still a very important and I think it will remain so for several years."
The cross-party group of MPs raised concerns about services such as the BBC iPlayer, which make it possible for anyone to view post-watershed content at any time of the day.
The Ofcom partner for content and standards, Stuart Purvis, said a lot of the responsibility rested with parents to make sure their children were not watching inappropriate material.
"If you look at the iPlayer, it immediately asks you if you are over 16," Purvis said.
"The question that arises is: Are children going to understand that or are they going to override it?"
He added that new technology had "in a sense disadvantaged parents" who might not necessarily know how to use access locks to protect children from post-watershed content.
However, both Purvis and Richards dismissed suggestions that it was the role of Ofcom on its own to encourage parents to become more aware of their children's online activities.
"We are definitely not the right body to deliver a mass campaign to promote media literacy," Richards said.
"We are not qualified enough to do it. We don't have the skills to do it. I think somebody does have to do that, but it's not the duty of Ofcom.
"That sort of mass campaign to bring parents understanding of literacy issues is not appropriate for us."
Asked by the panel whether he would allow a 10-year-old to watch Channel 4 drama Shameless, Richards replied: "Parents have got to make that judgment. These are matters for parents.
"The issue for us is: Is it in the right place in the schedule? I think it is."
Richards also told MPs that Ofcom would be willing to cooperate if police decided to launch an investigation into ITV's premium-rate phone abuses, but he said the regulator had not yet been approached to provide evidence.
Ofcom's appearance before the culture, media and sport committee comes after the publication of a report by Dr Tanya Byron in March on how to protect children on the internet.
Among the key recommendations was the introduction of a national strategy for child internet safety, which involves a self-regulatory approach to internet content.
The Byron report also called for better provision of information to families, after it concluded that there was a "generational digital divide", which meant parents did not feel equipped to protect their children online.

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The BBC director general, Mark Thompson, has outlined ambitious plans for Freesat, the corporation's free digital satellite TV joint venture with ITV, including offering access to on-demand programming via broadband TV services such as iPlayer and Kangaroo.
Thompson, speaking at the press launch of Freesat today, said the service was aiming to swiftly offer viewers broadband internet access through an in-built ethernet connection in set-top boxes.
"The long-term goal of Freesat is to connect to broadband and the internet [to make] services such as the iPlayer and Kangaroo accessible through boxes like this," he added.
Thompson said that offering broadband access via Freesat boxes, something that BSkyB is also aiming for with its Sky+ personal video recorder boxes, marked "something new in satellite broadcasting in this country" that would be available to all households.
A senior executive at Freesat said that the plan was to offer broadband access via an ethernet connection within "months".
Freesat has been pitched as a potential rival in some respects to Sky, which offers subscription and free satellite services, and its long-term plans and customer acquisition strategy.
Michael Grade, the executive chairman of ITV, said that as its high definition channel would be available via Freesat the broadcaster would not necessarily now need to do a deal to offer the network via Sky's digital satellite service.
"ITV HD won't be available on Sky at the moment," Grade added. "We are a commercial organisation and won't give it to Sky for nothing."
However, Thompson said that Freesat was "not intended in any way to compete with BSkyB's central proposition".
"Freesat represents a new choice out there in the market and more choice," he added.
"Sky is pretty expensive and it is possible for many to switch to free satellite at a lower price … [Sky's] free proposition has not been front of mind to date."
Emma Scott, the managing director of Freesat, said that while the service currently had no capability to offer subscription services it would be "considered in the future". "It is fundamentally a free platform," she added.
Channel Five is expected to join Freesat in the near future, once programming rights issues had been resolved. For now the service will features BBC, ITV and Channel 4 networks.
Grade said that Freesat, which was originally mooted to launch in 2006, "represents the final piece in the UK digital TV jigsaw".
"Freesat is absolutely complementary to the UK's most popular [digital] platform Freeview," he added.
"Every house can have access to free-to-air digital TV and we are confident it will be a huge success."
Thompson said that Freesat would "make a real difference" in achieving the BBC's aim of transmitting its high quality programming to licence fee payers across the UK on its new HD channel.
"We are moving as fast as we can to get our crown jewels in HD all onto Freesat," he said.
Freesat is targeting two main demographics: households that have snapped up around 9.6m HD-ready TV sets; and the 27% of UK households that are currently unable to get digital terrestrial TV service Freeview.
Even after digital switchover is complete it is estimated that around 13% of households will only be able to access around half of the channels on Freeview.
Freesat has a total annual budget of £6m, funded by ITV and the BBC, of which an undisclosed amount will be spent on marketing the service to consumers.
The Sky chief operating officer, Mike Darcey, criticised ITV's decision not to make ITV HD available on Sky.He said: "ITV want to have their cake and eat it. On the one hand, they are claiming to champion HD for all, while on the other, they are deliberately withholding free-to-air content from almost half a million Sky HD homes.
"This is neither in viewers' interests nor in keeping with ITV's 'HD for all' posturing. All in all, this is curious behaviour for a public service broadcaster."