In the past few weeks, TV watchdog groups, particularly the Parents Television Council (PTC), have raised issue over the explicit content of MTV’s “Skins.” The show, like its eponymous British source material, depicts casual sex and drug use by characters portrayed by teenage actors. The watchdogs’ concern is that children will be exposed to and influenced by a program in which adolescent characters deal with supposedly adult subjects.

“‘Skins’ is a ludicrous caricature of what teens wish life was like...or more accurately, what pathetic, sex-obsessed middle-aged network programmers going through midlife crises wish their teenage lives had been like,” the PTC said. It has gone so far as to petition the federal government to prosecute MTV for disseminating “child pornography.”

These allegations are wrongheaded and meritless, though not surprising. Parents Television Council is well-known as a right wing “family values” group. It frowns upon nearly all shows that don’t feature a perfect Caucasian family in a suburban house with a white picket fence.

In fact, the remake is tamer than the original because, according to the New York Times, Britain “has historically displayed a higher tolerance for TV eroticism than the United States.” No one is rushing to equate the new “Skins” with “Leave It to Beaver,” but there is equally scant evidence to suggest either is psychologically or developmentally detrimental. Parents cannot wish away the reality that high schoolers take drugs, have sex and gossip about both.

What parents should throw away is the notion that kids who watch this show will mimic their favorite character’s actions. High schoolers, older adults often forget, are smarter than their momentary lapses of judgment indicate.

If the PTC and company dislike what is aired on television, they can simply change the channel. Or, better yet, turn it off.