Just speaking for myself: Most TV shows and movies are rated, though, and will specify what the rating is for (movies are better for that than TV). I keep an eye on what my flist says about things, and some suspicious looking stuff I will avoid until someone I trust has vetted it for me. Also, a lot of times, reviews will mention if there's stuff not suitable for small children, which usually means me. :)
Books and newspapers are harder: I go by subject and the theme of the book from the title/inside flap, or the headline/sub headline of the article. I also rely on a lot of friends for recs, and prefer to buy books by authors I know and trust. For example, Nora Roberts/JD Robb writes a lot of sexual violence, but after reading over a hundred of her books, I have a pretty good idea for how far she's going to go, and I can either skim it or skip it if that's not going to work for me.
Sometimes I take risks on something I'm not sure about, and sometimes I avoid it like the plague. It depends on how stable I feel any given day. (For me, this also applies to fic by authors I don't know and that has't been personally recced to me.)
One place I wish you could put up warnings is the workplace--my coworkers are having an ongoing conversation about basketball that includes frequent references to Kobe Bryant's rape case, and sometimes I have to leave the room. I'm not comfortable drawing attention to myself to ask them to stop.
no subject
Books and newspapers are harder: I go by subject and the theme of the book from the title/inside flap, or the headline/sub headline of the article. I also rely on a lot of friends for recs, and prefer to buy books by authors I know and trust. For example, Nora Roberts/JD Robb writes a lot of sexual violence, but after reading over a hundred of her books, I have a pretty good idea for how far she's going to go, and I can either skim it or skip it if that's not going to work for me.
Sometimes I take risks on something I'm not sure about, and sometimes I avoid it like the plague. It depends on how stable I feel any given day. (For me, this also applies to fic by authors I don't know and that has't been personally recced to me.)
One place I wish you could put up warnings is the workplace--my coworkers are having an ongoing conversation about basketball that includes frequent references to Kobe Bryant's rape case, and sometimes I have to leave the room. I'm not comfortable drawing attention to myself to ask them to stop.
/tl;dr