R16 or AO? MP’s question about Naked Attraction raises a point on media regulation

A throwaway question from an MP to the country’s chief censor, about nudity on the state broadcaster, has revealed how out-of-date New Zealand’s media regulation is.

As Parliament’s annual review of the Office of Film and Literature Classification came to a close, National MP David Bennett used the last minute to ask about Naked Attraction.

The British dating show, which airs on TVNZ 2, contains full-frontal nudity. Each episode features close analysis of the genitals of several naked participants, as a chosen bachelor or bachelorette chooses who to go on a date with – based on looks alone.

“It is not going to be a sensible question,” Bennett prefaced.

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“But it’s something I’ve always wondered. How did you approve Naked Attraction on TV?”

Chief Censor Caroline Flora​ had a simple response: “We don’t actually authorise it to go on TV.”

That was the simple part of her response, but she asked if Parliament’s committee wanted the full story – which touches on the antiquated nature of media law in New Zealand.

Bennett continued, “It’s just bizarre that it gets on at 9.30pm.”

But because the naked dating show is broadcast on television before it’s put onto other formats, its classification isn’t Flora’s problem.

“It’s not submitted to us for classification,” she explained.

Instead, it was in the domain of the Broadcasting Standards Authority – which gave it an Adults Only (AO) rating. Her office would only get to rate it if it was first published on a DVD, she said, before being broadcast on television.

“If had been on DVD, we would classify the nakedness. We’d probably give it a restricted (R) rating,” she said, to groans and laughter from some of the MPs.

Most of the half-hour meeting to review the Classifications Office had focused on work it had done recently in response to the digitisation of the media landscape.

Flora discussed social media, the process to classify shows on streaming services, and digital tools to ensure that if it banned material it could be monitored online.

But the review came to a close discussing television and DVDs because promised law change, to update media regulation legislation for the digital age, has not yet eventuated.

In June 2021, former Internal Affairs Minister Jan Tinetti announced plans to update the laws to “keep New Zealanders safer online”. Her review promised updates would come for the media regulators.

The current system relies on an array of small organisations, such as the BSA or advertising authority, stepping in to regulate certain mediums.

“Our existing regulatory system was designed in the early 1990s, without the Internet, and focused on traditional newspapers, printed material and free-to-air TV. It is not fit for purpose,” Tinetti said, at the time.

In June last year, the Department of Internal Affairs was consulting various groups about what a new media regulation law should look like. The department said it was still working to form a proposal, and would report back later this year.

New Internal Affairs Minister Barbara Edmonds​ was yet to be briefed on the media regulation review.

A spokesperson said she was “working through her priorities for the work programme”.

Asked if the Government still planned to update the media regulation laws, a spokesperson said: “Announcements regarding the next steps for the DIA content regulatory review will be made in due course.”