OK Boomer, Gammon and Karen added to Ofcom's list of offensive words

23 September 2021, 13:11 | Updated: 23 September 2021, 13:14

The watchdog has ranked the political labels for the first time, but stressed that there is no ban on these terms, words or phrases.

The words Karen and Gammon have been added to a list of potentially offensive words by Ofcom.

Political labels such as Remoaner, Snowflake and Boomer have been ranked in a survey of swear words and offensive terms which could cause offence to TV and radio audiences.

Gammon. which is used to to insultingly described predominantly white, middle-aged men with right leaning views and Karen, which is often used to described to describe a demanding middle class woman will now be considered by Ofcom when dealing with complaints in the future.

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The director of standards and audience protection at Ofcom, Adam Baxter, said: "People’s views on offensive language can change significantly over time.

"So to ensure we’re setting and enforcing our rules effectively, it’s essential we keep up to date with how viewers and listeners think and feel."

The survey of audience attitudes towards into these political labels found that terms such as Boomer and Snowflake cause "mild" offence, while terms such as femin-Nazi were deemed "moderately" offensive.

The watchdog maintained that while this terminology will factor into their future decision making, there is no ban on these words.