A deluge of dumbed down smut... the lurid new face of Auntie
HOW to make money from X-rated videos, an artist who specialises in breaking wind and a guide to porn... this is just a flavour of the content on BBC Scotland’s online platforms.
In a bid to increase its appeal to a younger and more internet-dependent generation, the broadcaster has moved away from simply producing traditional TV programmes.
Yet the new type of digital content – including short videos and podcasts produced for platforms such as The Social and BBC Sounds – has proved controversial, with some critics warning of declining standards and squandering of the licence fee.
Contributors make videos about a variety of serious topics – body confidence, mental health, surviving lockdown and tackling racism.
But in a video posted in May, a 20year-old woman explains how she makes up to £12,000 a month posting explicit material on a website she began to repay her student loan.
In another video an artist in lockdown describes her talent for breaking wind to produce art, and there is a short film featuring two women discussing an alternative to visual pornography – reading dirty books.
It seems a far cry from the ‘inform, educate, entertain’ principles laid out in the 1920s by the BBC’s first director general, Scot Lord Reith.
In 2017, as The Social was expanding its output, BBC Scotland was accused of squandering licence fee payers’ money on a series of ‘crazed’ and explicit videos featuring gratuitous sexual references, foul language and crude stunts.
The short films were littered with explicit material which critics said could easily be stumbled upon by children using social media.
Since then, some of the more gratuitous videos appear to have been removed from The Social’s website.
One video entitled ‘Shake your t**s, it’s Friday’ featured a young woman spraying her naked torso with glitter and applying jewelled stickers over her nipples, before shaking her breasts at the screen.
A film showed a man having intimate parts of his body waxed as he cries out in pain, while another featured a woman crudely talking about a sex act. In a different film, a magician performed a stunt in which he hands a woman a card on which is printed an obscene message.
One video showing two men in kilts baring their buttocks in a yoga demonstration is still available to view.
Footage is broadcast alongside a warning that it ‘may contain strong language and adult themes’, but there is no sign-in or age verification.
Now some videos feature a parental lock which can stop children seeing inappropriate material.
The BBC found itself at the centre of another storm last year when it was accused of ‘dumbing down’ its new flagship Scottish channel.
Former air hostess Laura Anderson, a runner-up on Love Island – famous for having sex on live TV during the show – was one of the star turns at the launch of the new £32 million-a-year BBC channel in February last year.
The Scot, from Stirling, admitted having sex with fellow contestant Wes Nelson on ITV2’s Love Island in 2018. The pair were seen getting intimate under the covers in a bedroom.
Since then, she has regularly appeared on BBC Sounds and this year recorded a ten-part series podcast series discussing life-changing moments that can shape our lives.
A far cry from ‘inform, educate, entertain’