Despite popular belief, children probably will not become sex offenders because they saw a nipple on television. In fact, I would bet there would be no ill effects upon society at all if nipples could be seen during prime time outside of the Discovery Channel.
Heh. Dude, believe it or not, I'm hardly a prude.
However, there's the question of where do we want that line to be, in regards to public decency.
Public as in "out in public, in plain view of everyone".
I mean, is having sex on the sidewalk in a public park during daylight hours just fine with you? No? What about people walking down the sidewalk at 3:00 in the afternoon with their genitalia swinging in the breeze? I'd rather not be subjected to that myself.
Join a nudist retreat, I won't come there and bother you. Wear as little as you like in your house. If your back yard has a tall privacy fence, do yo' thing on the grass, whatever. Not my problem.
But in public, especially if we're talking about normal-hours plain-old broadcast TV, is it so freaking terrible to have a few simple standards? Do we HAVE to be constantly awash in sexuality ALL the time, as if that were the sum total of life?
Is it
really so much to ask, to be able to sit and watch the Superbowl halftime with your child and not be subjected to Justin (bleh) Timberlake and Janet (blah) Jackson doing some kind of talent-less softcore porn musical? Complete with gold-studded nipple-popups? Hail it wasn't even good
art.
Just pardon the hail out of me for thinking some mild basic standards might not be quite so horrible.