Not a month goes by that you don't hear about this group or that group decrying the evils of sex and violence on TV and movies, and how they're desensitizing our youth to sex and violence, making them more likely to hurt other people or lessening their sexual ethics.

My feelings of the validity of these points notwithstanding, I find it interesting that they always focus on R-rated movies, violent cop shows, and morally loose situational comedies as the perpetuators of this evil, and children as the victims.

What is surprising to me is that nobody seems to consider the daytime soap as harmful, despite the fact that daytime soaps subsist on a steady stream of lies, deception, sexual promiscuity based on the intent to lie or deceive, kill, maim, or otherwise create false drama on a daily, if not hourly basis. Of course the quick answer is that the 'victims,' that is to say, children, aren't home to watch daytime soaps, so they can't have an impact. But what if they're not the only victims?

What if, through daytime TV, we're raising a generation of adults who are just as desensitized to the kinds of acts portrayed on daytime TV, and though more mature, may be just as susceptible to this desensitization because it's packaged in a more 'realistic' and serialized format which sucks people in to such a degree, that for many avid viewers, the characters become a part of their life?

In short, I wonder how many of those protesting against violence on television are closet soap addicts...