And you thought Gossip Girl was bad. Next week MTV plans to influence entertain our young people with a US rip-off of the UK teen drama “Skins” which features “strong language, drug use and sexual scenes throughout.” On its website MTV is even boasting about how “NSFW” (not safe for work) the show is, with all the “sex- and drug-oriented taboos” it portrays.

NSFW? Try NSFT (teens) or NSFA (anyone)?! After watching a few promo videos for the show I can say that the Parents Television Council has it quite right:

Skins is filled with graphic content involving high-school children, including depictions of teens drinking, smoking marijuana, and using massive quantities of drugs, engaging in violent acts, and having irresponsible sex with each other, with their schoolteachers, and with other adults. Other TV shows, like Gossip Girl, have included some of these activities; but Skins’ depiction of such activities is on a scale never before seen on TV. Skins is so extreme that MTV is rating the program TV-MA – a rating cable has previously reserved for programs like FX’s ultra-violent and quasi-pornographic series Nip/Tuck, which was wholly unsuitable for all but those who crave explicit material.

· Skins is about high-school children. Mixed in with the graphic drug use and sex scenes are storylines about falling in love and problems at school – elements sure to generate interest from teens. The show is being written, in part, by teens. And the Skins cast is actually made up of teenagers, not adult actors playing teens. One cast member is only 15 years old.

· Skins has been extensively marketed to high-school children. Internet sites like Teen.com have carried dozens of promos and stories about the new show. Many of the Internet ad campaigns have shown how Skins blatantly urges children to lie to and defy their parents, and engage in risky and dangerous behavior. MTV may try to claim that this show is intended for adults – but the way the show has been peddled to kids reveals the truth. MTV WANTS your kids to see – and be influenced by — this program!

That last line is no joke. MTV has created a whole interactive website for the show where kids can join the “Skins community“, ask the stars of the show questions and brag about their illicit behavior in a section called “Where it Went Down”:

Leave your mark on where it all happened! Browse and share the places where memories were made – and the scattered pieces of nights you can’t really remember. Post the truth about the biggest parties, heartbreak, friends, sex, and every kind of trouble.

In all honesty, the sex part is not a big surprise to me, this being MTV and all, but I have to admit that I am a bit shocked by the drug use being portrayed. I thought at least we were still trying to keep kids off of mind altering substances. I’m sure there’s probably going to be some kind of negative portrayal of drug use with some main character ODing or something to that effect, but, commenting on one promo for the show which features several of the characters licking a toad in a desperate attempt to get high, a resident MTV blogger says: “To each his own.” That’s not a good sign.

Dear Lord, I never thought I’d look back and actually want to see another cheesy teen-targeted PSA like this again:

Yes, it’s terrible, but, hey, at least they were trying. These days it seems we’ve given up completely.