The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council has released its decision concerning the broadcast of an Italian-dubbed erotic film called La Chiave Del Placere (originally released as The Key to Sex) on the specialty service Telelatino. A viewer complained that the sexual content was exploitative towards women. The CBSC’s National Specialty Services Panel found no breach of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters’ Sex-Role Portrayal Code, but it did find that the display of the 18+ classification icon for 6 seconds was too brief (the Code requires a full 15 seconds).

La Chiave Del Placere told the story of a man and his friends who engaged a variety of sexual encounters at his boss’s house while the latter was away. The broadcast depicted men and women in various states of undress and engaging in different types of sexual activity. Telelatino broadcast the film at 2:00 am on September 24, 2006 with an 18+ classification and viewer advisories.

In response to the complaint that this type of movie demeans women, the CBSC applied Article 4 of the CAB Sex-Role Portrayal Code, which requires that programming “refrain from the exploitation of women.” The Panel observed that “sexually explicit content is not inevitably equivalent to exploitation. Provided that no degrading comments are made about the nature or role of either gender, and that neither gender is portrayed to the detriment of the other, the program will not be understood to be in violation of the [Code].”

The Panel also noted that the program contained appropriate warnings of the sexual content, but that Telelatino aired the 18+ classification icon for only 6 seconds, rather than the required 15. The Panel found a code violation on that account.

The complainant also alleged that the rating information was not accurate. The CBSC commented that it is unfortunate and confusing for viewers that cable and satellite television providers do not necessarily use the same ratings system as the broadcasters for the functioning of their digital blocking technologies. Since this is not a broadcast standards issue, the Council noted that viewers must familiarize themselves with the ratings and blocking technology available on their own equipment.