Nude Big Brother upsets Australia

Editions of Australia's Big Brother have a 15 certificate

The nude antics of contestants on Australia's Big Brother have prompted politicians to demand a review of how much nudity can be shown on TV.

The latest Australian series of Big Brother has featured regular nudity, footage of contestants showering and sexual activity in a hot-tub.

MP Trish Draper said it was pornography shown when children could be watching.

A spokeswoman for broadcaster Network Ten said the show complied with the existing industry code of practice.

Nude photographs

Ms Draper raised her concern with Australian MPs after the latest episode of the programme, classified for viewers 15 years and older, featured contestants taking nude photographs of each other.

"What we basically have is pornography and full frontal nudity on television at a time when children are watching," she said afterwards. "These people have an aspiration to be porn stars."

You put 15 sexually active people in the house who obviously enjoy sex and are young, it is going to happen Ex-Big Brother Australia contestant Michelle Carew-Gibson

Ms Draper and other government backbenchers asked Australia's communications minister Helen Coonan to brief MPs and senators on the existing rules for broadcasting nudity and adult material on free-to-air television.

The Big Brother format has become popular throughout the world, with contestants filmed 24 hours a day in a house before being evicted one by one.

Australian contestant Michelle Carew-Gibson, who was voted off the show earlier this month, said viewers should turn off their television if they did not like what they were watching.

"You put 15 sexually active people in the house who obviously enjoy sex and are young, it is going to happen," she said.

"We are bored and we are going to do things."