Australian lobby group Free TV is pushing to remove time restrictions for mature content on the airwaves.

The group which represents all the major stations says it wants M-Rated content to be able to be shown at any point throughout the day, where it is currently limited to post-8:30 p.m.

Free TV says that in today’s round-the-clock world of media viewership, “time zones” have become completely irrelevant in trying to limit access for impressionable young minds. Anyone who has spent more than a few minutes on the internet will have noticed the wealth of inappropriate material sitting just a few links away.

Advocates for censorship and child safety say parents should continue having the confidence that their children can turn on the TV and not be exposed to violence, drug use, nudity or anything else that M-Ratings allow.

Free TV has argued that with the broad range of content delivery systems now available children can already access whatever they want, whenever they want; if parents to not exercise enough involvement. The lobbyists pointed out there are two ad-free dedicated ABC channels for children, and that parents can block out unwanted content by using the lock on their digital TV, or monitor children's viewing.

“The family in Australia has always relied on being able to turn up at home in the evening and switch on the TV and know that there'll be something that's not going to harm or disturb the children,” Elizabeth Handsley from the Australian Council on Children and the Media said.

Free TV Australia chief executive Julie Flynn said: “We live in a very different world today, where people are accessing content across a range of devices much of which is not regulated, some of which is a little bit regulated... people have the capacity to watch what they want when they want, the time zone is past its use-by date.”

PhD student Lesley-Anne Ey from the University of South Australia has conducted several studies relating to child development and the media, she says: “Media's renowned for pushing boundaries and once the time zones are relaxed you can imagine what sort of material is going to flood our televisions during the day... exposing children to adult concepts which they're not developmentally able to manage.”

Attorney-General John Rau says: “We know how influential television can be on young minds and any change that could expose young children to even more sex and violence would be a bad outcome for our communities... I share concerns with many parents that programs, such as music videos, already push the boundaries of age-appropriate programming.”