Media outlets in Canada and the United States are bound by different guidelines when it comes to swearing.

A case that made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1970s effectively defined a time of day in which specific language that could be considered crude could appear on the national airwaves.

Canada adopted some prohibitions in the late 1980s to forbid “obscene or profane” words but never got around to offering a true definition of “swearing.”

Our attitudes on swearing have changed partly because of two developments. First, the ubiquitousness of cable television allowed content creators to show their craft—whether comedic or dramatic—without having to dub every confrontation with “forget you.” Years later, social media allowed the public to communicate freely and rely on words to describe politicians, teams and movies that would never make the cut inside a newsroom.

In Canada, there is a fascinating generational gap on swearing. In our latest survey, similar proportions of Canadians say they either always alter the way they speak to make sure they do not swear in public (43 per cent, down one point since September 2023) or sometimes alter the way they speak so as not to swear in front of certain........

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