Uh-oh. The indecency fine against CBS for Janet Jackson's televised breast-baring at the 2004 Super Bowl has been dismissed. Partner-swapping has gone prime time, thanks to the TV show "Swingtown." And the latest ads for the CW series "Gossip Girl" promise hotter sex than the average TV viewer probably ever experiences.

Getting nervous?

If you're raising kids, you may be wondering: Has TV only gotten wilder in the four years since the Super Bowl indecency fine was levied and the phrase "wardrobe malfunction" entered our vocabulary? Is prime time a safe place for kids?

The answer is complicated.

Broadcasters — ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and The CW — still play by the same vaguely defined rules that they have used for years, attempting to grab the audience without sending viewers to the phones to call the FCC in anger.

And their recent programming "has been surprisingly tame," says Robert Thompson, a Syracuse University television professor and pop culture guru. Even the notorious "Gossip Girl" ads, he says, are much steamier than the actual show.

"Remember when the 's-word' barrier was broken by 'Chicago Hope'? That was back in '99 or 2000, and people said, 'Now that they've done it, everybody will be doing it.' Well, everybody is not doing it."

But the prime-time landscape has changed dramatically, making things more confusing for parents. If you're tackling this thorny topic, here are some variables to consider:

HAS TV REALLY GOTTEN WILDER?

There's more of everything on TV these days — more sex, more violence, more preschool programming, more cooking and gardening and home repair advice. In short, more that's good, bad and in between.

Basic cable channels like F/X and TNT attract fans with critically acclaimed, provocative shows that don't have to play by the same rules as broadcast shows. (You choose to invite cable programming into your house, the wisdom goes, so you're accepting its content.)

Some say broadcasters have ramped up nighttime sex and violence to compensate. But since the days of "Three's Company," much of the edgier content on broadcast TV has involved double entendres and sexually suggestive jokes that go over many kids' heads.

Much of the programming for young kids has splintered off to networks like Nick Jr. and the Disney Channel, a move some parents applaud. But even shows like Disney's "Hannah Montana" are "really pushing the envelope with sexing it up for young girls," says Lee Woodruff, who reports on parenting topics for ABC-TV's "Good Morning America" while raising four kids between ages 8 and 17. "That's disturbing for moms trying to raise girls with a sense of themselves and what's appropriate."

Melissa Henson, director of communications and public education at the Parents Television Council, says that the line between broadcast TV, basic cable and pay channels like HBO or Showtime has become porous: "We've seen a lot of crossover shows. Things originally developed for cable are appearing on broadcast TV or being promoted on broadcast TV." She mentions cleaned-up episodes of Showtime's bloody series "Dexter" airing on CBS.

WHAT ARE KIDS WATCHING?

New shows now premiere year-round, and with so many channels available even in houses with only basic cable, kids can see a huge range of content.

"You can't possibly know about all the shows, unless you've got nothing going on in your life and you just watch TV with your kids 24/7," Woodruff says.

A show's audience may extend beyond its target market. On The CW, "Gossip Girl," "Supernatural" and "Smallville" feature hot young stars that appeal to teen and 'tween fans, though the network says its programming targets viewers 18 to 34. Parents may assume that a show's popularity with kids makes it appropriate, but then be shocked by the content.

But we tend to confuse "inappropriate" with "indecent."

"There's a big step between 'not appropriate' for little kids and 'it fits the definition of indecency,' " Thompson says. Nighttime broadcast programming may be more adult-oriented than ever, but that doesn't mean the networks are committing decency violations.

Academy of Television Arts & Sciences chairman John Shaffner points out that while some viewers say TV content has gotten obscene, the networks offer only what customers want.

"Television is a pig with a ring in its nose," he says, "and the audience has got that ring in its hands."

ANY GOOD NEWS?

A live event like the Super Bowl incident doesn't tell us about what broadcasters are doing; they may well have been as surprised by it as anyone. If it was planned, it may have been planned by just a handful of people.

What's more, the FCC doesn't vet shows themselves or post guidelines. It only responds to complaints. So broadcasters can't ask in advance exactly what is over the line.

Parents do have tools at their disposal to control what gets watched. Kid-friendly fare from earlier in the day can be recorded and shown to kids during prime time. We can ban channels we disapprove of or stick to pre-screened DVDs.

Some parents opt to record shows on a DVR and watch them to vet the content before showing them to kids, and fast-forward through objectionable commercials. But that, of course, takes time.

"That's where the mom network is really helpful," Woodruff says. "I can't know about all the shows that are appropriate for them ... so I'll do a quick 411 info gathering. 'What are your girls watching? What's it like?' "

She adds: "It takes a village of cable TV watchers."