Opinion on Censorship

Censorship

What is the point of censoring material? Is it to keep us safe from something we all know is there? Is it to prevent things from being shared? Or is it to save the children?
Even though these seem like different questions they’re really all asking the same thing: Who decides who should view what in this world?

Censorship is something I agree with, but not to the extent we live it today. I don’t believe the radio should censor bad words in song lyrics, that there should be age requirements for movies or certain plays, and I don’t believe the government (authority figures) should decide what to censor and from whom.

Censorship is something that should be decided upon by individual families. Nothing should really be censored out there, but individual families should have the choice of deciding what their children can watch, listen to, etc. For example, a movie should have a recommended age of appropriateness, but if a certain family thinks their child is mature enough to view a certain movie, he should be perfectly allowed to walk in freely, and not denied access because of his age (like it happens in many cinemas).

Radio networks should just announce that they may sometimes transmit music with a “Parental Advisory” label on it, and then this way, people who would rather not listen to it could just change the station, whilst others who do, could listen to it without restrictions.

I also believe it’s absolute crap is that people actually believe a certain age makes you completely mature. If we are not allowed to view a certain movie because we’re 17 and 364 days old, why can we suddenly be allowed to watch it the next day? It’s not like all of the sudden a magic ray of light fell on top of us that night and made us Mr. Mature. This is why I think ratings should only be recommendations (which they are in some countries) rather that “age of acceptance”.

Figures of authority have no right to decide what to censor. I’ve read that in some parts of the world, certain musicians are banned because of the ideals they express in their music; also certain movies, authors, etc. are banned! This is just plain wrong, they’re taking away our whole right of expression and freedom of speech! Why just the other day in school my short film wasn’t shown (even though they said they would) because it had “bad” language in it!

Bad language is a myth, who’s to say what’s right and what’s wrong? (It may be their use is inappropriate at times but they shouldn’t be censored because of it). It’s not like there are certain words that should never be uttered, everyone knows them, and everyone speaks them or at least has once in their lives. It is complete stupidity to think that by listening to words like Fuck, Cunt and Bitch (which you just read) will change your life forever, and think that little kids will repeat them just because they hear them. They repeat them because adults tell them not to!

Forced censoring is unnecessary and should be replaced by the decision to censor