Censorship on television.

exactly
if people are so worried about their precious little children, why aren't they there turning the TV off or deciding what channels appropriate? If the kids enough of a rebel to be beating you up to get the remote back and gain control over the tv, they aren't so innocent and they wont be traumatised by anything they see, youve already lost your battle.
Its up to you to bring up your kids, it aint the governments job. And if you don't like it, don't get pregnant.

Something that i found interesting is, in the 90's there was a cartoon called the angry beavers. It was one of my favorite cartoons, but in one episode one of the beavers told the other to "shut up". thats it. they aired it once, the station got so many calls from parents and FCC throwing fits, to get it taken off air. so the station re-aired the episode and bleeped the shut up part out. again they got calls, saying that the bleep was even more controversial than the shut up.

I agree it is up to the parents to decide what their children watch at home. If they don't like what's on the television, don't buy one.

I get that, but as a parent myself, it's not always as easy as black and white. What if you don't want your kids viewing certain things, and you have a system worked out at home where they don't/can't, but then they go to a friend's house where their parents don't care and let them watch things that you think are unsuitable?
You can have your own rules in your own house, but the rules don't apply outside, and that's where the problem is.
What about at school, where kids sometimes watch movies or shows in class that you might think are unsuitable? That's why schools have to ask permission before showing something to a class - they know that some parents might object to things with a certain rating, for certain reasons.

As a consenting adult, you have the freedom to watch whatever you choose, and rightly so. But I think *some* form of censorship has to be put in place, because if you don't have kids (or just don't care) then there's nothing stopping you from renting DVDs or whatever that contain explicit content. I'm not talking about crap like cartoon characters' backsides being banned, or banning junk food advertising, or lame stuff. I'm just saying that, as a parent, I don't particularly want my kids being exposed to things like drug use, explicit sex scenes or graphic violence. When they're older, sure, I won't have a problem with it, but as little kids, I think they should be watching more wholesome stuff on TV, and I can't always control 100% what they see on TV, so the broadcasters need to help out a little by making it so that some stuff can't be shown on TV, while other stuff can only be shown during certain hours when kids aren't likely to be watching.

^ Well yeah, they already do that - I'm saying that it's a good thing and I'm sure I'm not the only person in the country who's glad for it. I agree with the majority of regulations they have in place right now, things like when programs with a certain rating can be aired, what kinds of ads can be shown at certain times, etc. I mean, look at the difference between our (ill-fated) Big Brother, and that of, say, Denmark or Germany - they had full-frontal nudity shown pretty much any time of the day. Now, some people might not find nudity an issue (I for one am sitting on the fence, I'm just not sure how I feel about young children looking at privates), but others might, so yes, you have a choice there of just switching off, but in Australia it's easier - if you want to see doodles and boobies, watch it after the kids are in bed. That way there are no 'mistakes' or 'accidents'.

And, for the record, I never saw an episode of The Simpsons until I was 15 - which is so weird because my parents were really the opposite of strict with me as a child, but my dad said I 'wouldn't get it' and besides, it aired at the same time as the local news on another channel, so until I got a TV in my own room I had to just watch whatever my parents wanted to watch, or go find other ways to amuse myself.
But yeah, I know each person is different as to what they find acceptable or not, which obviously is where common sense and personal responsibility come into play, but I think Australian broadcasters are doing a pretty good job where they're at right now - I can go to the bathroom for ten minutes and know that there's no way in hell my daughter will be able to view something hardcore as far as violence, nudity/sex or drug use, that kind of thing.

^ I totally agree. I think Australian networks are doing a pretty good job as far as keeping 'adult' content to later hours when any responsible parent would have put their kids in bed hours ago.

I think, in those cases, that the people who whine about kids seeing nudity and what not (when it's shown at 10pm or whatever) need to be taking a look in the mirror before trying to scapegoat anybody else. But I do still think that some censorship should be in place because for every idiot who whinges that their kids were up at midnight watching adult programs, there are thirty other parents who put their kids to bed at 7pm and never have an issue - but they might if no censorship existed and adult content was shown at all hours of the day and night.

I think to a certain degree, censorship has gone too far, but in some places it hasn't gone far enough. Children see people smoking in the street all the time, and so censoring their cartoons to hide smoking is unrealistic. On the other hand, you can see people be run over, or get raped in soaps, which are often on before the watershed. Some things should be shielded from children (violence, bad language, etc), because, they need to hold onto their childhood as long as possible. I personally think that children shouldn't see violence, because it can be very disturbing for them, but seeing someone smoke, is pretty common-place, and not damaging. A small child shouldn't be able to get a hold of cigarettes, and by the time they are old enough to smoke, they should have been taught about the damaging effects of it.

johnny christ.:

There are worse things on the news than there are on most shows. Yet, you don't see them censoring out bodies and shootings.

Very true.

^ It is true, but I don't know, maybe America and other countries are a bit more graphic in what they show on the news every night. In Australia, you hardly ever see anything - if, say, there was a shooting somewhere, the reports will show footage of police with guns and a still photo of the offender, but will never show the victims' bodies or footage of the event as it was happening (only the 'aftermath' involving ambulances, police tape and people standing around crying). The worst you might see is maybe a patch of blood on the pavement. If they're going to do a report on something that might show graphic content, they have like five warnings in the lead-up advising viewers that the following story 'could offend' some viewers, and isn't suitable for kids to see.

I mean, it's a bit unfair to compare a legitimate news program to a soap opera. You can't censor the news, you can only edit footage to try and protect viewers from things that no person should ever have to see (casualties of war, bombs exploding, burns victims, etc etc). This is real life, as unfortunate and sometimes sickening as that is. If we start essentially censoring the media, ie not reporting on incidents and events that we would consider 'violent' or inappropriate for children, then where does that particular road take us?
It's a completely different story when it comes to things like movies, dramas, sitcoms and soap operas. Yes, they are an imitation of real life, but they are still fiction and as such I think there should be avenues in which children are somewhat protected from things they shouldn't be seeing. As I said, I don't agree that all 'adult' programs or programs containing adult content should be banned form TV, not at all - just shown at a reasonable hour when kids should be in bed and adults can make an informed decision about what they're seeing.

Censorship has gone much to far, everywhere. They need to chill, just because Tom the cat smokes a cigarette does not mean that some kid is gonna grab a pack because he saw him do it. Bleeping out words is plain stupid, it is JUST A WORD! It should not matter

It's all psychological. The way Tom smokes should be monitored by the producers. Little things like body language that is subtitle. As in if the cigar looks good, like kids would want to smoke it, then it is questionable.

I dont agree with censoring. If you dont want your kid watching it then block the stupid show. The shows were written the way they are and should be viewed as such. Its not like these kids wont learn about this stuff when they hit highschool. In that place nothing is censored anymore

Nowadays, censorship has gone way too far. I'm not understanding why it exists at all.. Like with kids watching shows they shouldn't be, isn't that the parents' problem? They should probably be monitoring what their own children are watching, instead of television being turned into total bullshit for everyone who is mature enough to see a cartoon cat smoking or hear the word "asshole."