Jakarta – A survey released on Thursday found that Indonesian sinetron (soap operas) were publicly regarded as having poor moral and aesthetic quality.

Sinetron had done a poor job of boosting social empathy and providing role models and contained too much violence and veiled pornography, the coordinator of the Science, Aesthtetics and Technology (SET) Foundation, Agus Sudibyo, said Thursday.

The survey, compiled separately in March and October last year and January this year, involved 220 respondents in 11 major cities across the country. The research was undertaken by SET, the Tifa Foundation and the Indonesian TV Journalists Association.

Respondents considered sinetron themes irrelevant to reality, not child friendly or environmentally friendly, gender biased and not supporting public interests, Agus said. "Sinetron are just for entertainment," Agus said, as quoted by tempointeraktif.com. (dre)