gren

My co-workers and I have daily conversations on current topics, recent events, etc. One of our chats was about censorship in order to protect children. I, as a childless adult, don't understand why parents can't just turn off the TV when something they deem inappropriate comes on. My co-worker with two children under ten tried to explain that she can't always be around to monitor what they watch, so systems should be in place to ensure that they won't accidently (or intentionally) watch something she doesn't want them to see. Obviously, you can't watch your kids 24/7 but shouldn't you as a parent be teaching them right from wrong, what's acceptable and what's not, and then be reasonably secure that, even in the time they spend away from you, they can still come to coherent conclusions about what they've seen? Or are children so stupid that we have to shield them until they go to college?

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Gren's Music

-=Tumble_Dry=-

I say strap em down, and force feed them goverment propaganda. That way when they are 18, they will join the military and you wont have to worry about paying for college.

gren

Umm...a fine proposition, but until they turn 18, the rest of us will have to deal with media geared towards 6 year olds. What happens in the meantime, or is this censorship even necessary?

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Gren's Music

dude101

i don't think children are stupid, but really curious. its human nature really, well we all want to know something that we are not ment to know. and if we are not ment to know something, it just makes it worse and well yea.. but i think if u just tell ur kids, y they can't watch it (and hopefully they understand, hopefully) then that might work. but in the end good luck with it. but other than that i dk, i'm not that old and having kids right now is well, a fair bit of time in the future. so i really can't say much else.

the only other thing i can say is well, u can never restrict what kids see theses days, if anything the kid will most likely watch it without realising that he wasn't meant to watch it. inapropriate stuff is everywhere these days. is just can't be helped i guess. so in a way children these days don't have much of a childhood now do they?..

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jaam0927

well im a teenager, and this is wut I think:
you can control, well not totally, kids that arent teenagers yet, cuz weh they 11 plus, they dont look up to their parrents as much as they did when they were kids, and teenagers are harder to control. but wut ppl dont realice is that there are many ways to control a person. now im talking about teenagers, kids are much more suseptible offer them a new toy and it will blow their minds. so my point is: you just have to figure out the way to control person, again it wont be total control but at least you have some, and for fathers(i think) the most control they have over their children, the safer/better they feel.
If we are talking about wut to do with wut children undre 9 watch on tv, tell ur friend to buy the V-chip, or any product with the same function. it will keep kids from watching things you dont want until they are old enough to "hack" into it...

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princesslady

well as they get older than you should let them have less restrictions but not all like they had when they were young. kids are not stupid. it's proven the baby is more smarter than an avergae human so they know what they are doing. when they are children yes you should have parental advusory on the television becasue telelvision influences children to do things. but yes you should protect them for a time but as they progress you should let them have less restrictions and let them make mistakes. you dont need to gaurd them till they go to college. thats a bit much.

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Born to rule, raised to lead, taught to establish: The African Queen

Miroku4444

Well parents can't watch them 24/7, but they should come close. To help in this they should install a V-Chip in their TV, put a parental thing on they're DVD player and PC. Censorship isnt the way to go, why ruin it for us.

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aceman67

As an artist, I think that censorship is wrong. Raising kids is the parents duty, not the television.

My parents did control what I watched on TV, and I'm a well adjusted adult.

Hell, My parents let me watch all the Freddy movies before I was 6. Did it give me nightmares, yes, and I woke my parents up in the middle of the night as punishment. Did it emotionally scar me? No.

Tell your co-workers to get off their asses and raising their kids instead of letting the boobtube do it for them.

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Hana_Chann

Its due to the parents I think; nowadays I don't think parents pay as much attention or try to show thier children the difference between right and wrong. Most parents nowadays have both parents working and they don't get enough attention because their parents leave early and come home late.

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Vampyre

well....there is no real simple answer for this problem. It mostly comes down to the parent.

For the TV thing....thats easily solved these days since you can block anything you dont want them seeing. For most TV's anyway.

But other things...I think that you shouldnt entirely shelter them nor should you let them run wild. Monitor and make sure nothing too bad happens. If its something that they can potentially learn from their mistakes themselves without any real danger to them, then i think it would be a better idea. People (especially children) often learn things much better when its self taught through experience.

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Baron

Ah, censorship the easiest thing to cry for when it all hits the fan.

It's an unfortunate part of life that people always look for something else to blame. "Little Johnny couldn't have been a psycho who was planning to shoot up his friends that darn video game/movie if you go back 10 or so years/comic book if you go back about 30" made him do it.

On the other hand, parents can't view everything personally so while censorship is wrong, Ratings are VERY important as are strict enforcment of such. Games such as GTA or movies like Silence of the Lambs, or a porn aren't appropriate for kids and as such if one tries to see it they shouldn't be allowed and there should be something identifying to the parents this item has such and such bad things in it so make sure your child is ready to see it. Some children can handle very mature subjects at a young age while others aren't ready until they are almost adults. It's for a parent to decide what is right.

That said ratings are more or less a way to make sure that things get to the age group they are aimed at, while still be accessible to others and letting them know what type of content is there. Games like Mario to little kids, Game like SoCom and such out to teens, and games like GTA or Manhunt to adults. (I use video games because they are easier. to use)

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