Access to Adult Cable TV Fare Too Easy, Critics Say

Betty Jones said she was incensed when Paragon Communications, which provides cable service in five South Bay cities, sent her an April movie listing that included instructions on accessing an adult entertainment channel.

Jones, a longtime Torrance resident, said she is not against adult entertainment but is concerned that the instructions will make it easy for children to dial up the service.

“Somebody blew it as far as I’m concerned,” she said. “I just think it was a totally irresponsible act on their part and I hope they don’t do it again.”

4 Mayors Wrote to Paragon

Jones and officials from several cities, along with clergy and other residents, are upset about the Tuxxedo Network, an adult entertainment channel Paragon began offering in January. They say that it is too easy for children to gain access to the channel and that watching it is harmful to them.

The mayors of four of the five cities Paragon serves in the South Bay--Torrance, Lawndale, Hawthorne and Gardena--wrote Paragon earlier this year to express that concern.

However, Paragon officials say they offer an adequate system to keep children from viewing the adult movies.

Torrance Mayor Katy Geissert said the previous cable company, Group W, had agreed not to offer adult channels. Although Paragon is not obligated by that agreement, Geissert said Thursday that she is upset that Paragon is offering the Tuxxedo Network.

Lawndale Mayor Sarann Kruse said she wrote a letter after several residents complained to her about the channel. Kruse said she is concerned that the service is too easy to access.

“I think it needs better restrictions,” she said. “It leaves too much wide open.”

Discontinuation Asked

Gary Leary, pastor at the Foursquare Church on Del Amo Boulevard in Torrance, takes a stronger stand. He wrote Paragon in January asking that the service be discontinued.

The channel “puts women in a bad light, fosters the dehumanization of women and in particular doesn’t show godly love,” he said last week.

Paragon Vice President Mark Mangiola defended the cable company’s programming, adding that he understands how some people can be upset about the adult channel.

“I can appreciate the fact that some people don’t want this in their house,” Mangiola said. But he added that no subscribers have complained or threatened to discontinue their cable subscription.

“The ultimate weight is with the consumer,” he said.

Paragon, which took over cable services from Group W Cable Inc. in 1987, serves about 54,000 households in Torrance, El Segundo, Gardena, Lawndale and Hawthorne. Movies on the Tuxxedo Network can be ordered on a daily basis. About 3,000 households order the Tuxxedo Network on a regular basis, Mangiola said.

Mangiola said the mailer Jones complained about should have included information about security devices to keep children from watching the adult channel.

Precautions for Parents

He said the cable company’s handbook explains that parents can keep children from accessing the channel by putting a lock on their cable converter boxes or by requiring a password to gain access to the station.

Without these precautions, the Tuxxedo Network can be switched on by calling Paragon and dialing a 10-digit account number on a touch-tone telephone.

Warren Carter, cable administrator for Torrance, said the access system used by Paragon is similar to those used by most cable companies.

Carter added that Torrance has no power to regulate Paragon’s programing.

Carter said he knows of only one other case--in Tennessee--in which residents complained about ease of access to adult cable channels.

Petitions Sent to Churchgoers

George Johnson, pastor of the Foursquare Church on Prairie Avenue in Torrance, said children are smart enough to figure out how to access the channel. “When kids are able to deal drugs at 9 or 10 years old, they can get into this,” he said.

Leary said he sent a petition to members of Foursquare churches throughout the South Bay asking them to oppose the Tuxxedo Network.

Mangiola said he has received no such petition.

Mangiola said the movies shown on the Tuxxedo Network are rated R and are “not nearly as explicit as the movies you can rent at the video store.”

Among the titles offered this month on the Tuxxedo Network are “Too Naughty to Say No,” “Young Nurses in Lust” and “Tropic of Desire.”

Mangiola said that even if Group W had agreed not to offer adult movies, Paragon’s franchise agreements contain no such restriction.

“We are abiding by the contract we signed,” Mangiola said.