The social services minister, Tanya Plibersek, has accused Australia’s biggest media company, Nine Entertainment, of “normalising” coercive control by airing an exchange in which a Married at First Sight contestant says he wants a woman to be obedient like a dog.

Plibersek urged parents not to let their children watch the “dangerous” reality TV juggernaut, which regularly attracts more than 2 million viewers on broadcast television alone.

In the clip the minister posted from the show Mafs: After the Dinner Party, host Laura Byrne raises the man’s attitude to controlling behaviour: “If you want someone who is obedient, yes, it’s controlling. And you want a dog.”

Contestant Tyson Gordon responds: “Maybe that’s what I want.”

Later he says: “I don’t want a dog. I want to be the man of the house. I want to be a leader … I’m sure every female wants that.”

Plibersek said we needed to call out this type of misogyny and that government can only do so much.

“When men who idolise ‘submissive’ and ‘obedient’ women are normalised on prime-time TV, it means coercive control is given a national platform,” Plibersek said in a post on Instagram.

“That’s not entertaining, it’s incredibly dangerous. This is the exact kind of cultural messaging we’re trying to change. Messaging which encourages control and dehumanises women, which is supercharged by algorithms peddling misogyny for profit.”

Plibersek said the government had delayed access to social media to children to avoid their exposure to this type of content and to promote healthy and equal relationships.

“Please don’t expose your kids to this stuff. And let’s continue to call out this behaviour for what it is – the harmful need to exert control over women dressed up as a normal part of a relationship.”

News.com.au commentator James Weir claimed producers had trawled “the darkest and dankest corners of the brosphere” for contestants this season.

TV Week said the show had crossed a line from “entertainment to concern very quickly” by airing scenes of bullying, name calling and physical violence.

Privately, producers argue they are not platforming the man’s views because in the Stan episode Plibersek referenced the hosts and the other contestants confronted his behaviour and called him out for his sexist attitude.

Plibersek has highlighted the scourge of gender-based violence and the problem of technology-facilitated abuse in her portfolio.

The Nine network declined to comment.