Viewer Descreption Advised
Air Date – November 5, 1993

“In the next half-hour we’re going to hold a mirror up to this community and show you a few things you may have overlooked,” reporter Lisa LaFlamme warns as she sets the scene for a special report on Kitchener’s CKCO-TV tonight. “Things like sex at your local corner store or your local library.”

It’s an attention-grabber, to be sure. And so is the title of LaFlamme’s special report.

Viewer Discretion Advised (10.30 p.m., Ch. 13, Cable 12) is a timely and revealing look at some of the regulations that govern censorship on the screens and bookshelves of Canada. The half-hour production is a fast-paced and nicely polished report that touches on a wide variety of concerns.

The program starts off in an obvious setting – inside a screening room at the Ontario Film Review Board, where the show offers a revealing look at some of the people and guidelines that determine what can and cannot be be shown in this province.

“That’s where the controversy heats up,” LaFlamme explains in the show. “Internal guidelines are as varied as the population, some demanding a censor-free society, others crying out for stiffer regulations.”

To her credit, LaFlamme does a thorough job of exploring a wide variety of opinions, covering everything from movies and books to art and video games in the process. And although the report conveniently seems to leave commercial television out of any close scrutiny, it does offer a balanced look at many of the quirky and sometimes-disturbing things that can fall through the cracks of the system.

Eric Kohanik – Hamilton Spectator / Kitchener – Waterloo Record