This monograph provides a rationale for contemporary guidelines for the television and broadcast network management of sexual content in proposed progam materials. Beginning with a brief outline of the professional practices and responsibilities of broadcast standards editors, it then explores the relationships between sexual development, attitudes toward shame and nudity, and their implications for contemporary editorial decision-making. Examples of sexual themes that illustrate broadcast standards concerns about the balanced portrayal of issues and about the prospects, risks, and consequences of sexual behavior are examined, including pre-marital and extra-marital sex, teenage sex portrayals, contraception and abortion, prostitution, sexual violence and rape, homosexuality, incest, divorce and separation, and sex, gender, and sexism. A rationale is offered for the use of standardized sexual decision points, which assure the editor, network, and viewer alike that each content item has been specifically and uniformly subjected to a uniform, rational method of scrutiny. A 37-item bibliography is included. (Author/LMM)