Censorship on television.

I belive censorship's gone too far. Parent's let the child be raised by TV. The parent's should turn off the TV if they don't like it. Like in radio, they made Stern quit. Ever Since I was 10 I listened to Howard Stern with my dad. HE, not the FCC, decided what was best for me. Hey I'm a pretty ok person, and in a way ththe graphic images, innuendo, and violence is good.

Like video games. Violent games more most youth is a release, If I go play Grand Theft Auto, I'm not going to go out and kill somebody. Most people don't. The media has us all programmed. They say "This is bad" or "This is good". The Christan right also is making the situation worse. Kids should not be entirley sheltered. Because when they go out into the world they won't know what to do!

I know a 16 year old girl who is christan, can't listen to music (only jesus related, and that's censored) can't watch tv, If she's lucky she'll be able to watch Diney Channel (that's even more censored) can read books (but nothing sex related, or has to do with satan) and has never even seen mtv! I feel for her, I was with a friend and we were talking about sex, and she barely knows what it is. SHE'S 16 PEOPLE!!! Some of this has gone too far.

I dont get the point of censorship.
just because they bleep out the words doesnt mean they can hide the fact that they are saying an innapropriate word.
maybe some cencorship is needed for little kids, but I dont censorship is important.

Well, I mean, I think censoring is good.. Tom and Jerry is aimed at younger kids, like 4-9. And until you're like 10 you can't really understand at all the consiquenses of what you do. So I wouldn't be surprised if some kid saw Tom smoking and wanted to try it thinking it's cool. I heard of this five year old kid who brought a gun to school because he saw it in a movie and thought it was cool in the newspaper. Scary! So even if it doesn't see too bad you have to remember how this stuff influences younger kids.

But also you shouldn't shelter them. I mean, use common sense. For example, any descent parent is not going to put the South Park Movie in the DVD player for their five year old. Obviously the Tigger Movie is a better choice. Stuff like that.

rock_is_dead:

I believe censorship's gone too far. Parents let the child be raised by TV. The parent's should turn off the TV if they don't like it.

It's not necessarily that easy. As somebody pointed out earlier, what happens if you allow your child to visit at a friend's house (say, a sleepover or something), and the other child's parents are super-lax or just stupid enough to not care what the kids are wtching on TV, and your kid is exposed to a bunch of 'bad' stuff because you can't be there to change the channel? You may have the smarts to lock certain channels or supervise your kid's TV viewing when they're in your home, but when they're over at a friend's house, they're on their own, and I feel that censorship helps in that way - because I wouldn't want my 5-year-old going over to a friend's house and then coming home and asking me all kinds of questions about things she's seen on their TV because their parents subscribe to the 'they have to learn somehow' or 'they're not really watching it/absorbing it anyway, it's just TV, they know it's not real' attitudes (both of which are ridiculous, imo).
I'm glad there is censorship on TV, because even when my child is in my home, I can't be watching them every second of the day and making sure they're viewing wholesome programs - I might go outside to hang out some laundry and come back to find my kid staring open-mouthed at the sex scene in the midday movie, for instance. Then, when they get older (but are still at an impressionable age) I might pop down to the store to get some groceries and leave them to their own devices - and by this time, they know how to use a remote and maybe even to unlock PIN codes on certain channels - I can't control their viewing at all times, so I believe censorship is a way of doing it so that nobody misses out.
Besides, being a consenting adult and of an age where I can choose what I prefer to watch, I can always go buy a DVD or download an unedited TV show if I want to experience all the swearing, sex scenes, drug depiction and other adult themes if I choose to - I'd prefer to go to the trouble than have uncensored filth pouring out of the TV into our living rooms every day where it might be misconstrued or influential to certain people in a negative way.
Besides, it's all well and good to say that parents should be raising their kids rather than letting the TV do it for them, but the world's in a sorry enough state already without taking away censorship and then letting the 'raised-by-TV' kids continue to be raised this way, just with more sex, drugs and violence bombarded at them. You and I can be as outraged all we want at these lazy parents, but unfortunately we can't install a police or child services officer in every single home in the world to ensure that parents are doing their job. It's like obesity - I see fat parents who are too lazy to cook, feed their fat kids fast food four nights a week, and then try and blame junk-food advertising and the retail of soda at school canteens, instead of looking at themselves and changing their terrible habits to become good role models for their children. A lot of parents these days just don't care - they're too busy being selfish, or worryied about work or their divorce proceedings, and refuse to accept the blame when their kids turn out bad - 'it's this, it's that, it's definitely not ME! I'm a perfect parent and I do everything for my kids!' Sound familiar? Therefore, censorship is necessary because there are that many parents out there who would continue allowing the TV to raise their children, then complain about the school, their kids' friends, the general state of society rather than themselves when their kid turns around and starts swearing, or asks them about things they've seen on TV. "How dare they allow that filth to be aired on TV while my kid's watching!" etc.

rock_is_dead:

I know a 16 year old girl who is christan, can't listen to music (only jesus related, and that's censored) can't watch tv, If she's lucky she'll be able to watch Diney Channel (that's even more censored) can read books (but nothing sex related, or has to do with satan) and has never even seen mtv! I feel for her, I was with a friend and we were talking about sex, and she barely knows what it is. SHE'S 16 PEOPLE!!! Some of this has gone too far.

That's not the government's censorship laws there. That's her parents trying too hard to shelter her from a big, bad world, and let me tell you, that kind of overprotectiveness is super-detrimental to this girl.
The government's laws, as I'm sure you're aware, allow for a lot of freedom on your and my parts. If your friend's situation was symptomatic of censorship laws, we'd all of us be in the same boat because the same restrictions that apply to her apply to us, but that's not the case.
You and I can still go to a record store and buy a CD by Eminem, for example - the government gives us that freedom, they just stick a label on it warning the unsuspecting shopper that it's not suitable to be played at a kids' birthday party. You and I have the freedom to go to the library and borrow out books on the birds and the bees, or read teen magazines, if we aren't taught sex ed in school, or our parents won't discuss it with us. You and I have the ability to change the channel and make up our own minds whether what we're seeing on MTV or something other than the Disney Channel is going to harm or influence us in some way, and therefore decide whether to keep watching or change the channel.
All 16-year-olds should have those choices and abilities, and the government recognises that fact. Censorship on television has very little to do with religious zealots who don't see that they are destroying their daughter's ability to function in the outside world in future. A lot of 'sheltered' kids I knew in high school ended up making big mistakes when they moved out of their parents' house and suddenly found the freedom to make their own choices - they drank too much, they dabbled in drugs, they experimented with sex, etc, because mommy and daddy weren't there to stop them anymore - and it usually turned out badly for everyone.

Censorship on TV hasn't gone too far. Yes, at times it's slightly irritating to hear 'bleep' rather than a simple word, but in the long run, I couldn't care less.
I think editing smoking scenes out of programs aimed at children is a smart decision, though, because being a smoker, I know what it feels like to be watching TV, see someone light a cigarette, and you automatically reach for your own pack on the coffee table.
A child seeing a cartoon character smoke, then trying it themselves, is not an outright decision - it's a form of subliminal messaging that kids don't understand, so it's probably better to remove the issue and hope that it works, right?
And I have to admit I don't really approve of graphic violence or sexual suggestion being viewed by children - sure, it takes an already disturbed/messed-up kid to go out torturing animals after seeing violence on TV or video games, but on the other hand, I see all these little girls wearing far too much makeup and dressing like mini-whores - I definitely will be supervising my daughter's consumption of music videos and the like, in an effort to discourage her idolising the highly-sexed image of artists like Britney and Christina. It's not right that a 4-year-old wear a boob tube, miniskirt, high heels, and glitter eyeshadow, and you know what made me sick last time I was at the mall? The girls' clothing section at Kmart had little tiny g-strings and bras on the racks. WTF? This is an area where censorship is needed. My husband and I, while shopping for baby clothes recently, came across a cute little pink frilly bikini in baby/toddler sizes. I thought it was kind of cute (it was pretty modest as far as bikinis go) but he was disgusted, and said no daughter of his would be wearing a bikini at such a young age.
That's slightly off-topic, but the thought should be there - our kids are important and need guidance - and not from the television.

I think some people are going to far with this. Some of you might remember Cookie monster from sesemie street (sp?) they said that was bad and changed him to vegitable monster and Oscar the grouch from that show (the green dude who live in the trash can) they say he is giving kids anger management. It is good to care about what your kids watch but I think they are going a little to far with some of it. Censorship can stil be good but for children's shows they are starting to go to far. (Other shows are fine at the moment.) On my oppinion kids now a days are way to connected to electronics and TV thay should get away from it at times. Two hours a day was what my mom always said.

I was watching the movie Weird Science on tv and it censored when some guy said the word "malacha". I don't even think that's a bad word. I think censorship can be plain stupid at times. Not to be a hypocrite, but I think a lot of Christians are doing this stuff. They think everything SOMEHOW has the devil in it, so that makes it evil. I just really think the FCC has gone too far sometimes.

Guardian of the Aura:

Not to be a hypocrite, but I think a lot of Christians are doing this stuff. They think everything SOMEHOW has the devil in it, so that makes it evil. I just really think the FCC has gone too far sometimes.

Where do you get that from? I mean, there may be some extreme Christians who want to censor everything, but they aren't the ones who are censoring stuff.

I agree with most of the censorship stuff that they do know, like censoring songs on the radio and things on the TV. It makes sense to me that since little kids could be watching you don't want them to be hearing all those bad words. And it's not like you can't find and uncensored version of whatever it is. What I don't agree with is censorship that oppresses. Banning books and such. That's not right.

i guess considering i'm still a child, i shouldn't have much of an opinion, but honestly, i think censorship has gone a little too far. when i watch tom and jerry or anything in that general vicinity, it doesn't make me want to go out and smoke a cigarrette. i guess it depends on the impressionability (sp? is that even a word?) of the child. i mean, sure, if you have this kid that isn't necesarily the brightest crayon in the box, who if barney told him to go jump off a cliff, he probably would, yeah, sure, censor the smoking and drinking. or gee.. maybe we should let the parents deal with it? some (not all, i'm not putting all parents into a giant stereotype here) parents are just realllly lazy! if you don't want your kid to do stupid stuff they see on tv, don't sue the company or the fcc or whatever, turn the magic shiny box off once in a while. *rolls eyes* i'm not trying to offend anyone, just stating my opinion, thats all.

xfearsxofxfallingx:

I think some people are going to far with this. Some of you might remember Cookie monster from sesemie street (sp?) they said that was bad and changed him to vegitable monster and Oscar the grouch from that show (the green dude who live in the trash can) they say he is giving kids anger management. It is good to care about what your kids watch but I think they are going a little to far with some of it. Censorship can stil be good but for children's shows they are starting to go to far. (Other shows are fine at the moment.) On my oppinion kids now a days are way to connected to electronics and TV thay should get away from it at times. Two hours a day was what my mom always said.

I totally agree that that kind of censorship is pointless, stupid and completely unwarranted (or maybe I'm evil because I give my daughter a plain cookie every day, and when I eat fast food she gets a handful of fries to chew on so she doesn't feel left out).
When I talk about censorship being a necessary evil, I'm talking about sex, drug depiction and violence. I could care less about swearing, I cuss around (and sometimes at) my daughter every day. It's just words. If she comes up to me and says 'S***' I'd just laugh and tell her it's not a nice word and that adults are the only people who are allowed to use it. No big deal (I don't care if she swears, I just know other snots would get all upset and think I'm mistreating her by allowing her to say four-letter words).
But, while I can make the choice to sit down and watch a movie containing graphic sex scenes and violence, my daughter is not old enough to make that decision yet, and I would prefer that she didn't see that kind of stuff. As a parent (and I like to think I'm a responsible one), I monitor what she sees on TV, and make sure that if I think something might be inappropriate, I change the channel. It's my job to do that, not the FCC or whichever organisation (it varies depending on what country you live in, of course) handles what gets shown on TV. I figure there are just as many consenting, informed adults out there as there are children, and if you have children and worry about what they see on TV, then it's YOUR job as a parent to control that, not the government's. Because there are so many people out there who are single or don't have children and they deserve to have a choice, not be forced to watch endless hours of shows aimed at kids, just because some parents can't be bothered to be concerned about their kid's TV consumption.

I don't think that children are extremely influenced by cartoons. Like for example the Tom and Jerry thing, the kids are not going to go smoke just because they saw Tom smoking because chances are that some of the kids watching the show don't pay that much attention to detail as teens do so they are not going to go up to they're moms and ask for a smoke. Also teens may be influenced by some shows but not all.

I have been complaining for years now that America is the only democracy that I can think of that practices this much censorship in media. It goes back to the issue of what the hell happened to the separation of church and state, because, at the end of the day, it was only during the primetime hours that networks were supposed to limit adult content, yet this is far from what has happened.

I think it depends on how censored it is. I mean- a cat smoking? That's hardly plausible anyway, no-one's gonna be influenced by it. But now they're going so over the top no-one is allowed to sing 'Baa baa black sheep' anymore, they have to sing 'Baa baa rainbow sheep' because apparently it's racist. That is ridiculous. Of course children shouldn't be allowed to watch porn, violence or whatever, but there is a limit. Cartoon violence is harmless.
And swearing's natural; practically everyone does it, in the real world beyond the TV screen at least. Even if you flip a few channels to the music section, there's always some crap video with girls in basically nothing; won't little kids think that's what grownups do?
I think censorship's pointless really, and ratings are a way better idea cause then everyone can tell what's likely to happen and parents can base their views off that.

People aren't being strapped down and forced to watch smut, its the parents job to make sure their kids aren't watching it. I don't really believe in censorship or the FCC because of the simple fact its restricting peoples capacity to express themselves.

Fair play there is material out there that would warp the mind of children s but as a responsible parent it is your job to ensure that your kids get their hands on it, not the FCC.

Hannibal King:

People aren't being strapped down and forced to watch smut, its the parents job to make sure their kids aren't watching it.

If only there were any to watch!

This is kinda similar to the whole video game controversy. Children can pick up habits from watching cartoons, or playing video games, at a young age, to an extent. It doesn't make them want to kill people, it could however make them pretend and effect their imagination. But most cartoons these days, aren't violent, other than the ones intended for a more mature audience of children, after their minds have developed, children know the difference between right and wrong, real, and pretend. If their parents worry about it, then they should be more responsible to keep their young children from those more mature cartoons.

So far my all-time favorite censorship ever was when they tried to show The Big Lebowski (which is one of my favorite movies) on network television, and the scene where Walter and the Dude go to the kid's house and trash the Corvette, Walter is saying "You see what happens, Larry? You see what happens when you fuck a stranger in the ass?" and it got changed to "You see what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps?" Classic. Fell off my couch laughing at that one, I did.

But as with anything, the final responsibliity needs to fall on the parents. A woman who sues a television station for traumatizing their child after they heard a swear word or saw a sex scene on a show being played first needs to think about where *they* were and why *they* were not turning off the television. But since there is no personal responsibility anymore, since she can't be bothered to parent her child, it falls to the television stations to self-police and censor what they broadcast. It's ridiculous. And as One Thousand Oceans points out, one person's definition of unviewable material (her mom being upset about an animated starfish butt) is vastly different from another (I found my personal line somewhere in the torture-rape-porn mess that was "The Hills Have Eyes" when one of the creatures was brutally raping a woman in front of her child, I turned it off). There's no way to make everyone happy, so the stations should be able to show whatever they want and put the choice to watch in the hands of the consumer. But unfortunately unless and until we get back on track and actually make *people responsible for their own actions* (gasp! what a concept!) censorship will have to occur on television because the stations have to cover their own asses.

Tbh kids shouldn't watch so much TV anyway. I think its quite obvious kids shouldn't be exposed to think like smoking and swearing at a young age when their minds are highly impressionable. But then again most kids hear it in the home more than anywhere else, via their parents. Or random guests, friends of the family etc.
We need to watch it though, cos we don't wanna become some kind of Nazi nation do we?
But I stand by my original statement, im probably being hypocritical cos I watch TV quite a lot, but I accept the fact I shouldn't. At least I went out and played on the street with the neighbours when I was a kid, I went to beaches and parks, noone does that now, they all have xbox's. Sadly I hate my neighbours now... but I do go out when Im not busy, I dont play video games.

tabitha:

A woman who sues a television station for traumatizing their child after they heard a swear word or saw a sex scene on a show being played first needs to think about where *they* were and why *they* were not turning off the television.

I want to see the scientific evidence that some kid was actually traumatized by a curse word or a "sex scene" (such as they are) on television. I'm sorry, but this whole "but the children, the children!" thing that our society has gotten into is bloody ridiculous. The children are not so fucking innocent, alright? I can distinctly remember being in the first grade and running down the hall with my class chanting "Sex sex sex is a law law law when a guy gets a girl on the floor floor floor" and I promise you that we didn't get that from any tv show. I also had a babysitter's son teach me the words "fucking shithead" and I called everyone that for awhile - should we also ban babysitter's sons while we're at it? Also, newsflash from a woman who has been around a lot of boys since she is raising a son - they start checking out the porno by age 8. If they don't find it in your house, they will go find it in someone else's house. That's not being shown on television, either. So basically the censorship nazis are fighting a losing battle, and they should hang up their Victorian petticoats already and find some more worthy cause to dedicate their time too.