Editing Bleep censor (section)

=== United States ===

In the United States, the [[Federal Communications Commission]] has the rights to regulate indecent broadcasts. However, the FCC does not actively monitor television broadcasts for indecency violations, nor does it keep a record of television broadcasts. Reports must be documented exclusively by the public and submitted in written form, whether by traditional letter or [[electronic mail|e-mail]].

The FCC is allowed to enforce indecency laws during 6&nbsp;a.m. – 10&nbsp;p.m. local time.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.fcc.gov/guides/obscenity-indecency-and-profanity |title=Obscenity, Indecency and Profanity |publisher=FCC.gov |access-date=2012-01-19}}</ref> In addition, for network broadcasts, offensive material seen during [[Watershed (television)|watershed]] in one time zone may be subject to fines and prosecution for stations in earlier time zones: for instance, a program with offensive content broadcast at 10&nbsp;p.m. [[Eastern Time Zone|Eastern Time]]/[[Mountain Time Zone|Mountain]] resulted in many stations being fined because of this detail.{{Citation needed|date=May 2010}} It falls out of watershed at 9 p.m. [[Central Time Zone|Central Time]]/[[Pacific Time Zone|Pacific Time]]. To compensate, a channel may only air uncensored material after 1 a.m. [[Eastern Time Zone|Eastern Time]] so that the broadcast is in watershed in the contiguous United States. For example, [[Comedy Central]] only airs uncensored after 1 a.m. so that Eastern Time, Central Time, Mountain Time, and Pacific Time all have it past 10 p.m.{{citation needed|date=September 2011}}

Cable and satellite channels are subject to regulations on what the FCC considers "obscenity", but are exempt from the FCC's "indecency" and "profanity" regulations, though many police themselves, mainly to appeal to advertisers who would be averse to placing their ads on their programs.

Some television and cinematic productions work around the requirement of a censor bleep by writing dialogue in a language that the intended audience is unlikely to understand (for example, Joss Whedon's ''Firefly'' used untranslated Chinese curses to avoid being "bleeped",<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6UJ1BgAAQBAJ&q=joss+whedon+firefly+untranslated+chinese+curses&pg=PA180|title=Firefly Revisited: Essays on Joss Whedon's Classic Series|last1=Goodrum|first1=Michael|last2=Smith|first2=Philip|date=2015-02-02|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=978-1-4422-4744-4|language=en}}</ref> while the ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'' episodes "[[The Last Outpost (Star Trek: The Next Generation)|The Last Outpost]]" and "[[Elementary, Dear Data]]" have the character of Captain [[Jean-Luc Picard]] utter the French obscenity, ''merde'', which is equivalent to "shit" in English.).

The ''[[Arthur (TV series)|Arthur]]'' episode "Bleep" censored out a bad word that D.W. says in the story in order to have an episode about swearing without needing to expose child viewers to the word.