“On the brink of obscenity”: Culture minister worried over airing of “Frenchy Shore”, a reality show about ten young partygoers with no outlet. Anton’s portal, at the helm of the program, secures unprecedented “freedom” in the PAF.
“French Shore”, a derivative product
They were between 20 and 30 years old, half girls, half boys, from all over France, gathered at a villa with a swimming pool in Cape d’Acte for a holiday. Their mission: to party. And as one says: “If I go out, it’s not to wear pearls”.
Filmed in July, the ten-episode season 1 began on November 11 on MTV France, airing one episode per week, Saturdays at 11pm and repeats on the Paramount+ platform.
Produced by Ah! A production owned by host Arthur, the show is a variation on MTV’s “Shore” concept, which launched in the US in 2009 and has been successful from Italy to Mexico via Poland.
“Elegance is France, hardcore is the French shore,” says Ah! Artist David Masira. Production.
Reality TV 2.0
An example of rude dialogue is the words of one of the participants, 22-year-old Melvin: “If there’s two arms, two legs, a hole, I can go in there”.
Anton’s portal acknowledges that the ten paying participants mostly come from the nightlife world and are “very uninhibited”. “They don’t have the codes of classic reality TV, don’t think about looking at the cameras, don’t do ‘acting’ (comedy), which makes you want to follow him.
Ouryel in particular drew attention, declaring to his companions: “I am a transgender” and “I am proud of who I am”. They fall into his hands.
Why is the plan controversial?
On X (formerly Twitter) and other tiktoks, we have easy access to candid shots of a candidate showing his penis, blurred but erect.
Hence, the question of minors’ access to this “prohibited” content for under-18s on MTV and under-16s on Paramount+, Culture Minister Reema Abdul Malak expressed concern in Le Parisien on Tuesday.
“Anyone can see it on social networks like it happened to me,” said the outraged minister, slamming the plan as “bordering on obscenity”.
“We’re not in the register of fiction, a movie or a series, the retrospect that implies,” he added, fearing “a disastrous introduction” to teenagers.
As for Anton’s portal, “yes there are truths we have never seen, yes it is divisive, but the viewer is warned”.
What control?
While the media regulator assured the minister to Le Parisien that it had “competence in platforms for the protection of minors”, Arcom could not actually interfere with the content of international streaming services.
Similarly, Arkham cannot control the content of social networks, but asks them to fight against misinformation and online hatred.
In the specific cases of MTV France and Paramount+, the publisher of the first (Viacom CBS Networks International) is headquartered in Prague and the second is headquartered in Berlin, only Czech and German regulators can intervene. So this is what Arcam asked them.
In a letter consulted by AFP on Wednesday, its president Roch-Olivier Maistre warns his colleagues of the “strong reactions” evoked by “Frenchie Shore” in France, and points out “questions regarding the objectives. Hand, respect and human dignity and, on the other hand, the protection of minors” European Guaranteed by order.
What about social networks?
Asked by AFP, TikTok indicated on Thursday evening that it had removed some of the videos in violation of its terms of use.
Its moderation teams (including 687 French) assured the Chinese Bite Dance site that it would “continue to work with a guarantee to quickly remove any inappropriate content, particularly related to the hashtag #FrenchieShore.”
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