There's no hiding from sexual content anymore

When I was a kid, I used to like watching the Academy Awards every year.

It was always fun to see all the movie stars gathered in the audience, and to see who each year's big winners were. Though I remember feelings of incredulity on more than one occasion when a "Star Wars" film failed to win Best Picture, my overall memories of those shows are good ones. After all, it was almost always a pleasant evening spent with my family.

But the Oscars have become something different today. Not only is the telecast mostly a colossal bore of self-congratulation, it's become something quite a bit less family friendly. It's not something I'd be comfortable letting my children watch.

After all, consider host Jon Stewart's opening monologue. His very first joke of the evening referenced "make-up sex." And, less than two minutes later, came humor at the expense of teen pregnancy.

Usually, I'm a fan of Stewart. His political satire is some of the best comedy being performed today. But some of the material he presented at Sunday's Oscars seems better suited for his regular 10 p.m. cable time slot, than during network prime time.

But the Oscars telecast is only a small part of a much larger problem. Sex is everywhere we turn these days, and for the parents of small children, it's becoming next to impossible to maintain a wholesome upbringing.

I understand that as a parent, it's my responsibility to monitor what my kids watch on TV. And that's what my wife and I try to do. If our kids are watching TV, it's almost always something like "Spongebob Squarepants" or "Hannah Montana." If there's a program with adult fare — sexual content, language or violence — that my wife and I want to watch, we can always wait until later in the evening, thanks to the magic of the DVR.

But it's not just the shows that give us trouble these days — its the commercials. Sure, sexuality in commercials is nothing new. But lately, more and more advertisers have moved beyond the pretty girl in the beer commercial to sexual innuendo that barely passes for innuendo.

One that comes to mind is a series of commercials aired by NBC to promote its new series "Lipstick Jungle." The spots clearly showed a couple in the throws of what can only be described here as "hanky-panky." And while there was no nudity or specific language, it was pretty to clear to anyone — including the 8-year-old and 5-year-old in my house — what was going on.

Now it would be one thing if this ad was airing at 9 or 10 o'clock at night. But NBC was airing these ads during the 7 p.m. hour, a time slot that used to be called the "family hour." It's pretty pathetic when you can't even watch TV at 7 o'clock at night with your family without having to routinely tell your kids to cover their eyes.

But the overt sexuality of our culture isn't limited to TV. We can't even go to local grocery store without our kids being exposed to headlines like "8 tips for better sex" or "10 things guys crave in bed" every time we check out.

It wasn't so bad before my kids could read. But those days are gone forever. And while their eyes are still more likely to gravitate to the nearby candy shelves, the day is near when my wife and I are going to have some explaining to do. And as tough as it can be to be a parent these days, it would be nice if we didn't have stuff like this thrown in our kids' faces.

I don't want to be a prude. I'm a proponent of free speech, and I'll defend further than most the rights of anybody to print or broadcast pretty much whatever they want to.

But it seems there's a level of common decency and good sense that's being ignored these days. Parents ought to be able to take their kids to the grocery store without having them exposed to smutty magazines in the checkout aisle. Parents ought to be able to watch TV shows at 7 o'clock without having to hear sexual jokes or having to sit through commercials rampant with material that would have passed for pornography 30 years ago.

I realize there's a harsh world out there, and the day will come when my kids have to face it. But as a parent, I should get to decide when that day comes. And today is simply too soon.