Those born in 1997 are in their mid-teens now. They are shedding the dependence of close supervision, and testing how far they can go, and how much they might be able to get away with. At this stage of life, inadvisable chances are taken, and mistakes are often made. Hormones develop. Some learn from their mistakes, and use the lessons learned. Some want their privileges without taking responsibility for them.
We are referring, of course, to the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) and its unfortunate steps into TV censorship.
The NBTC was born with the people's constitution of 1997. While that charter was lamentably trashed by the military junta in 2006, large sections survived. The commission was charged with taking back the airwaves from state agencies and business cronies, and returning them to their rightful owners. The NBTC has taken steps that help to move towards that goal. It also has taken others that have not been so helpful.
In past months, and especially in recent days, the NBTC has begun to assert its opinions about broadcast content. It has decreed precisely how much news there should be on certain television stations. It has announced it will monitor and regulate shopping channels. The commission has claimed the right to oversee who measures TV ratings, how they measure them, and how the NBTC will change the measurement systems.
In short, at 16, the NBTC is claiming the right to expand its role from regulator of broadcast frequencies to censor of what is carried on the frequencies.
Which brings us to Hormones. There is a TV show of that name, which depicts teenagers more or less as they are _ conflicted, experimental, naughty, rebellious and more. The NBTC has recently taken the role of the teen who knows best, and complained that Hormones should be "re-edited".
Peerapong Manakit of the NBTC told the media that Hormones "puts indecent thoughts and images into the minds of the audience", thus violating Article 37 of the Public Broadcasting Act, which is all about decency.
In reality, the true violation here is by the NBTC and its spokesman of the moment. It is not even a question of whether Mr Peerapong's opinion is wrong, which it is. The fact is that the NBTC is charged with making the airwaves and broadcast channels available for programming. It was not brought into existence to oversee that programming, but only to make it possible.
Just like the teens depicted in the Hormones show, the NBTC is delving into areas where it has no expertise, no background, no capability and certainly no authority. Mr Peerapong's opinion about Hormones may be interesting to some people. He has the right to free speech, but it is wrong to demand that the public give him the NBTC as a free-speech platform.
As far as censorship is concerned, the NBTC is not qualified. Using its considerable power as a regulator to influence the content of broadcasts is far outside the intentions of those who brought it into existence.
Public opinion, broadcast laws, government oversight _ all these and others are more than enough to attend to regarding the content of what is carried on radio, TV, wireless networks and the internet. The NBTC has tough jobs ahead. It is years behind schedule in bringing in 4G phones and digital TV, for example. It should stop being a know-it-all teen about programming content.