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MTV has once again outraged an advocacy group that wants to reduce the level of adult content and profanity on television. The Parents Television Council, a nonprofit group known for criticizing shows, including “Family Guy,” for explicit content and adult jokes, took the network to task for airing condom ads and staging performances with skimpy costumes and sexually suggestive dancing during the Video Music Awards on Sunday.

Some viewers have said that Miley Cyrus’s performance, which included miming coitus with Robin Thicke and rump-shaking among dancing bears, was in particularly poor taste.

The Parents Television Council’s complaint about the show, which echoes similar statements it has made in years past, took on greater weight this year because Ms. Cyrus’s father, Billy Ray Cyrus, sits on the group’s advisory board. Representatives for Mr. Cyrus did not respond to requests for comment, but he may have made his opinion known on Twitter last night, writing: “Thanking God for so many blessings tonight. Continue to pray for world peace. More love … less hate.”

MTV rated the program TV-14, which means the program “contains some material that many parents would find unsuitable for children under 14 years of age.” But the Parents Television Council said the show crossed a line and that the network should have warned parents against letting 14-year-olds — eighth graders, typically — view it without supervision. They also complained that the ads for birth control and R-rated movies during the show were aimed at an adult audience.

On its Twitter account, the council suggested that its ire was directed at the network, not Ms. Cyrus:

Not Miley. MTV. RT @SPINmagazine: Miley Cyrus' MTV VMA twerking tweaks the Parents Television Council //t.co/7V13Ga1ObO — Parents TV Council (@ThePTC) August 26, 2013

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“This much is absolutely clear: MTV marketed adults-only material to children while falsely manipulating the content rating to make parents think the content was safe for their children,” a spokesman for the group, Dan Isett, said in a press release. “MTV continues to sexually exploit young women by promoting acts that incorporate ‘twerking’ in a nude-colored bikini. How is this image of former child star Miley Cyrus appropriate for 14-year-olds?”

Jeannie Kedas, a spokeswoman for MTV, said the network had no comment on the criticism. As a cable network, MTV faces fewer restrictions on content than broadcast networks. Groups like the Parents Television Council have been lobbying Congress to pass a bill giving consumers the ability buy subscriptions to cable networks a la carte rather than in packages, thus giving consumers more power to choose what channels their families can view.