Well, damn.

Less than a year after Janet Jackson’s sun-shaped nipple ring saw the light of day in a 2004 Super Bowl wardrobe malfunction, the U.S. House of Representatives has cast a shadow on the likelihood of similar indecencies happening again.

The House’s insurance policy for deterring such slips is H.R. 310, known as The Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act of 2005. The bill, which passed overwhelmingly Feb. 16 with a 389-38 vote, would raise the maximum fine for airing inappropriate acts to $500,000, an obscene increase over the previous fine limits of $32,500 for corporations and $11,000 for individuals.

The logic is that the new increases will better allow the Federal Communications Commission to tailor penalties to the offending parties.

Supporters of the bill — including Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., who sponsored it — deny accusations that it is a form of censorship, but the bill promises at least self-censorship in broadcasters and entertainers who fear the new exorbitant fines.

True, the act does not change the established definitions of indecency and obscenity, but the networks already walk on eggshells when it comes to ambiguous FCC interpretations. Take, for instance, the Super Bowl commercials CBS pulled and the refusal of ABC affiliates to air Saving Private Ryan.

The FCC defines indecency as offensively depicting sexual activities, with the average viewer or listener determining what is offensive. The commission establishes obscenity as offesively sexual material that the community deems unwholesome and lacking value.

Indecent broadcasts are permitted to air from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., when impressionable children should be asleep. The FCC does not allow obscene programming at all.

But parents, not politicians, are responsible for determining what their children watch on television and listen to on the radio. Mature adults should be able to decide for themselves what they can watch without having their access to public airwaves limited because of a glimpse of mammary jewelry nearly a year ago.

And somebody needs to speak out soon before none of us are allowed to give a damn.