Mom: TV Cartoon Changed to Porn

Arlington mother says pornographic movie briefly replaced children's program on Cartoon Network

A television cable company is investigating an Arlington mother’s complaint that a cartoon her two young boys were watching suddenly changed to a pornographic movie.

Rebekah Woodruff said her sons, ages 4 and 7, were watching “Tom and Jerry” on The Cartoon Network at about 12:30 p.m. Wednesday.

“I heard the music change,” she said. “And I heard my oldest say to his little brother, ‘Don’t watch this. I think it’s something bad.’”

She said she ran back to the living room and saw graphic images of two women on the screen.

"We don't have channels like that," she said.

She immediately asked her children to turn around, muted the sound and then checked to make sure they hadn’t picked up the remote and somehow bought a pay-per-view movie.

Woodruff said she pushed the “information” button on the remote.

“And it says we’re watching 'Tom and Jerry,' Cartoon Network, at 12:30,” she said.

She also said she pushed the “channel up” and “channel down” buttons and the channel landed back on "Tom and Jerry" -- without the pornography.

"Most of the day, I've just held back tears,” she said. “I'm furious."

The cable company, Time Warner Cable, apologized.

“We have our engineering team still looking into it,” spokesman Jon Herrera said.

Woodruff’s complaint was the only one received, so it doesn’t appear to be a system-wide issue, he said.

Woodruff said she wants to know how the mix-up happened.

"I don't need an 'I'm sorry,'” she said. “I want them to be held accountable. I can't erase it from my kids' minds. I can't erase it from my mind."

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