US kiddies treated to Playboy TV

Kids in parts of North Carolina were yesterday treated to previews of Playboy TV featuring "nude women having explicit sexual conversations", as local news outfit WRAL puts it.

The outrage affected Time Warner Cable's Kids On Demand and Kids On Demand Preschool channels (described as "the safe and fun place for your kids to play") between 6.15 and 8.15 in the morning.

Time Warner spokesman Keith Poston fingered a "technical glitch" for the "very embarrassing" gaffe, which came "at the worst possible time on the worst possible channels".

WRAL not unreasonably demanded to know why Time Warner didn't simply pull the plug on the affected output as soon as the first shocked parent raised the alarm. The reason given was that technicians were having "a hard time" working out what exactly was going on because they could only see black on their monitors.

Time Warner said that after a similar incident a few years back, it put safeguards in place to prevent a repetition - something which "obviously didn't work", WRAL concludes. ®