There seems to be, in the media, a kind of competition going on about 'How much can we show?" I think it started in the 60s-70s when TV sets became an almost universal fixture in peoples' homes. It brought about a massive reduction in cinema audiences as the (often twice-weekly) outings to 'the pictures' ceased to happen.
But TV violence was bloodless, whether it was shoot-outs in The Untouchables or punch-ups in The Saint, and TV sex was restricted to kisses (sometimes with a bed in the backgound). Cinema, with its certification system, was in a position to show more graphic material. So studios went into a period where violent scenes became increasingly bloody and nudity/sex more common. In later years, of course, the growth of home video and straight-to-video production made for even more extreme material. It became a state of affairs in which film-makers competed with each other to provide a bigger thrill. You show limbs chopped off, so I'll show disembowelment, you give them straight sex, I'll give them lesbian sex, and so on.
Even after Star Wars, ET and Indiana Jones revived family cinema-going, this continued. All that happened was that another element of competition, who can create the biggest blockbuster, was added to the pot.
There is now a divergence between those who, in both TV and film, either go for 'necessary/natural' violence and sex, and those who add it gratuitously. Silent Witness is one of the most chilling programmes on British TV, but the murders are rarely if ever shown in graphic detail and if there are occasional nude scenes, they are in context and fleeting. But there are others who feel that everything should be show in graphic detail, regardless of the need for it, or simply in order to extract some small measure of shock from an audience they view as jaded. They forget that properly-represented emotion is the most effective provider of catharsis. Skilled actors portraying realistic fear are far more effective than the most terrifying monster CGI can create. If only because everyone knows the monster came out of a computer.
