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Discussion » Statements » Rosie's Corner » Censorship. Pro or Con? I think children should be protected from verbal filth. If adults want to swim in it let them. What do YOU think?
RosieG

Censorship. Pro or Con? I think children should be protected from verbal filth. If adults want to swim in it let them. What do YOU think?

You have no right to limit what I can read or listen to or believe any more than I have a right to limit what you read or hear or believe. Much as you'd like to and much as I'd like to we get to CHOOSE for ourselves. Now children of course need protection and guidance. When they are old enough to decide what they want to spend time reading or listening to or believe they do. Do you agree or dis? Why?

Posted - February 19, 2019
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Responses


  • 6098
    But children are going to get a lot of what is out there whether or not we try to censor it.  From various media they have access to, from their friends.  Did you as a youngster just read what books and see what TV show your parents picked out for you.  And a lot of kids growing up they want to do what they hear about or just what they want to do so they tend to view their parents, however much they are cared for, as restrictive. So they might see being a "gangsta" as being the height of romance or manliness or excitement or "freedom".  So I think we as adults must model as well as help them find positive things for them to do which give them a positive sense of self and that help people rather than hurt people.  I sure you remember that old saying about the idle brain being the devil's playground. 
      February 19, 2019 8:04 AM MST
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  • 6023
    First, let me say that I think "censorship" is imposed by the government.
    If (say) a radio station doesn't want to air certain views - that is their Right as a private entity.

    I believe it should be up to the parent what they allow their children to listen to / watch.
    But I also believe parents have a responsibility to educate themselves, in order to make that decision.

    Example: Video games.
    Many parents allow their children to play violent video games.  Most of those parents have no idea what the rating system on video games mean, or look at them.  And then some parents are "shocked" at the violence, when they see their kid playing the game.
      February 19, 2019 8:12 AM MST
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  • 113301
    Thank you for your reply Walt. Unless the VIDEO GAME is Scrabble or some other educational thing I am against it. Wasting time doing nothing but racing and winning or hacking and slaying! Seriously? SHEESH. I wonder what kinds of video games the parents play? Do they hack and slay too? This post was edited by RosieG at February 19, 2019 9:33 AM MST
      February 19, 2019 9:32 AM MST
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  • 6023
    A woman who used to work with me in Accounting ... she and her husband were in their late 70s, and they played World of Warcraft.  You wouldn't think by looking at them or talking with them - unless you mentioned WoW.  They said it gave them something to do when they couldn't sleep. 

    LOL
      February 19, 2019 9:50 AM MST
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  • 113301
    I have no idea what that game is Walt but I can guess it has a lot of hacking and slaying connected to it. World of IDEAS would appeal to me though I cannot figure out what kind game could be made out of that. But Word of WARCRAFT?  Not fer this little lady! Have you ever played it? How many worlds did you conquer or people you killed?  Do you get more points the more people you kill? Isn't that how war works? I'm gonna ask. Thanks Walt.
      February 19, 2019 9:53 AM MST
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  • 6023
    It's one of the MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games) - similar to Dungeons & Dragons.

    I've tried it and a couple others.  I can't get immersed in them, though.
    I always played a healer class - because everybody wants those in the adventuring party, but nobody wants to play one.  LOL
    But it's okay for me, 'cause I like staying in the back and playing a support role.
    What turned me off, was that everybody needed that support - but nobody gave it credit (or any good loot).

    To me, that's the big difference between MMO and tabletop games.  Even online tabletop games, the players recognize the value of support roles far more than MMO players.
      February 19, 2019 10:09 AM MST
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  • 113301
    Geez Walt funny you should mention D & D. My kid and his friends were all hooked on it from the time he was about 12 to maybe 14? They played D&D vigorously. I asked him to design a dungeon of UNICORNS were you earned points and moved on with super powers for DOING GOOD. He tried. He said it wouldn't work. The whole point of D&D is slaying the bad guys to get their powers so they won't be used to harm. So you have to kill. Well I asked. He tried. It didn't work. Thank you for the explanation and info. I'm addicted to BESPELLED. A Scrabble-like game I play daily. Alone. On my own. My reward is points before I flame out. I'm up to 1.6 million...my highest score so far. I'm hoping one day before I die to reach 2 million in one game before I flame out! My best opponent is me. Elsewise I do not compete against others. No interest in it! :)
      February 20, 2019 5:21 AM MST
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  • 6023
    Yes, D&D has a point system for killing ... but it's also up to the DM (Dungeon Master) - the person hosting the game.  So they can award XP (experience points) for other things - like solving puzzles, or acting "in character", or finding alternative solutions to killing foes.
      February 20, 2019 7:09 AM MST
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  • 113301
    Were YOU a DM Walt? It's a game for the very intelligent for sure. It hooked them for a time. Thank you for your reply and the info! :)
      February 20, 2019 7:54 AM MST
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  • 6023
    Yes, a couple times.

    But my parents wouldn't let my brother and I play D&D ... because they believed the church claims that it led to satan worship.  That claim was based on the movie Mazes & Monsters - which was partially based on speculation that a suicidal teen had been missing due to being lost in steam tunnels while LARPing (Live Action Role Play).  

    Mazes & Monsters

    Anyway ... we played a similar game, but it was based in space.  Complete with aliens, star ships, and future technology.

    This post was edited by Walt O'Reagun at February 20, 2019 8:09 AM MST
      February 20, 2019 8:07 AM MST
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  • 113301
    Thanks for sharing a part of your history with me Walt. I guess evil lurks wherever you think it does. Doesn't  it? :)
      February 20, 2019 8:09 AM MST
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  • 46117
    If you cannot say something in front of a child, maybe you should not be saying it at all.  They are our conscience in many ways.

    Sure there are times and places where adults can gather to speak of matters that are not for children, but just swearing and porn and the rest of it?  Who needs it.
      February 19, 2019 9:42 AM MST
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  • 113301
    I agree sorta Sharon. I've never been in a locker room or men's gym but I suspect the words they use there would curl my hair. It's enough for me that they stifle it when I'm around or others are around. You don't have to necessarily talk about disgusting things to scare a child. I think you ought not talk about being unable to pay bills for example.  Why worry the child with info he/she can do nothing about? Also I do not like having parents argue with great anger in front of their kids. Civil disagreements that do not degenerate into name-calling is fine. Kids need to learn that disagreement is okay as long as it is handled with civility. It scares them when parents do that. They should reserve that kind of juvenile behaviour for when they're alone if they must or take it outside  into the garage. No child should be subjected to ugly from their parents. Ever. Children grow up too fast as it is and are confronted with the ugly too early by others. But it should not be at the hands of their parents by word or deed. If parents cannot control themselves in front of their children they are lousy parents. Thank you for your reply Sharon. Also if divorced they should NEVER badmouth each other. Bad parents do that. Good parents don't. This post was edited by RosieG at February 20, 2019 5:28 AM MST
      February 20, 2019 5:26 AM MST
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  • 32656
    I think if an person want to curse etc. That is fine but they should be respectful to others and not do it in front of others especially other people's children. 
      February 19, 2019 2:23 PM MST
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  • 7280
    I remember Eddie Murphy's early cable specials---I though they were pretty funny.

    But it seemed that every other word that came out of his mouth was "f*ck."  Repeat any one syllable word 25 times (or every other time in a monologue) and it ceases to having much meaning and becomes distracting. Too bad---he frequently made me laugh between the "f*ucks."

    I'm not for censorship generally speaking.  Any "verbal filth" that any of my kids came across was handled simply---not in the home.  (Some exceptions were made for hitting one's finger with a hammer, however.)


      February 19, 2019 3:17 PM MST
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  • 16240
    "Secrecy is the keystone to all tyranny. Not force, but secrecy and censorship. When any government, or church for that matter, undertakes to say to its subjects, 'this you must not read, this you are forbidden to know,' the end result is tyranny and oppression, no matter how holy the motives. Mighty little force is needed to control a man eho has been hoodwinked in this fashion; contrariwise, no amount of force can control a free man, whose mind is free. No, not the rack nor the atomic bomb, not anything. You cannot control a free man; the most you can do is kill him."
    - Robert A Heinlein, From the Notebooks of Lazarus Long
      February 20, 2019 5:38 AM MST
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