Paranoid parents in Laguna Beach, Orange County, California have made the filming of the reality TV show Laguna Beach: The Real OC into an issue in an election campaign for the school board there. The police say claims that the TV show made Laguna Beach a destination for sexual predators are totally false.

Some parents and school board candidates also said police officials had told them that the number of sexual predators in the city had soared since the show began. Parents and candidates also made several references to school shootings elsewhere, suggesting, with no particular evidence, that the show might lead to such a tragedy here. The notion of increased sexual predators was called a “crock” by Capt. Danell Adams of the police. Captain Adams heads investigations into such cases.

Captain Adams said that a sexual predator program that focused on Internet prowlers had led to 13 arrests in 11 hours, but that not one was connected to the show and that police sting operations were similar to others elsewhere.

“MySpace is much more of a problem than MTV,” Captain Adams said, referring to the popular Web site.

Do reality TV shows about upper class teens hooking up and drinking too much do more to encourage teens to do the same than fictional TV shows such as The OC that show the same thing?

If parents want to protect their kids from the effects of TV I have a simple solution: Get rid of all TVs in the house. Just say no to television.

But then the kids will instead go online and look up far racier stuff on YouTube or other sites that have videos available for download. Or they'll visit bondage chat rooms. Or they'll talk in chat rooms where 50 year old guys pretend to be 14.

TV is safer than the internet. Living on a remote island would probably be an even safer bet. Though if the kid gets injured playing the lack of an emergency room nearby could be fatal.

New York Times writer Jennifer Steinhauer obviously doesn't like the show.

Anyone out of high school forced to watch more than an hour of “Laguna Beach” might possibly feel the urge to beat themselves about the head with a large stick.

Recently felt the urge to beat yourself about the head with a stick? If so, can you recall whether you've recently watched Laguna Beach on MTV? Did the urge to beat yourself on the head come before or after watching the TV show?