I wonder how much of that came from being a time when the 'parental advisory' type content was starting to become more common, but people's content was also still pretty compartmentalized.

Shows for kids where on at certain times on certain days, and these weird paper things called magazines where something you had to buy or subscribe to to view.

Now, barring some kind of active efforts, people see what they want when they want all on the same Internet so advertisers kind of have to pull back to avoid getting attacked for putting the wrong messages out.