Delete Expletives?: Internet Article

Millwood-Hargrave, Andrea. "Delete expletives?." ASA. December 2000. ASA, BBC, BSC, ITC. 26 Apr 2008 .

This article shows that people have noticed an increase in the use of swearing and offensive language in daily life. It was generally disliked, but people did not feel there was much they could do about it outside their home. People generally did not accept the use of swear words and terms of abuse before 9:00 P.M., as they expected children to be in the audience. This concern about swear words remained, even if the words themselves were considered ‘mild’. Many more people now say that racial abuse words are ‘very severe’ and there were greater concerns about transmitting ‘strong’ language that may offend others. While younger respondents were not as concerned as others in the sample about the use of many of the words tested, they were particularly likely to consider terms of racial abuse as ‘very severe’. Those who took part in both the qualitative and quantitative research were asked about their attitudes towards the use of swear words and offensive language in advertisements.