Censorship in the US

“While most teenagers (60 percent) spend on average 20 hours per week in front of television and computer screens, a third spend closer to 40 hours per week, and about 7 percent are exposed to more than 50 hours of 'screen-time' per week”(Many Teens Spend). Many parents agree that they would rather not have their children view indecencies on the Internet and television, and the government should control the obscenities on the Internet. Others believe that it is the parent’s responsibility to control and censor what their children are watching on the Internet and television.

Censorship is the suppression of publishing information on the Internet or television (Naik). The government blocks only the content that is proved to be unfit for the public. Censorship is only used to a certain extent in the United States of America, but it is much more widespread in other parts of the world. Many people argue that the First Amendment to the constitution provides freedom of speech. Therefore, fining television stations for not censoring explicit materials could be a violation First Amendment rights (Ruschmann). Most people agree that the reason that the United States survives as a democracy is because of the freedoms provided by the First Amendment. With these freedoms revoked, the government could become too controlling (Ruschmann). Censorship also occurs when politicians commit crimes and feel threatened by the media. Political Censorship is unjust to the public because stories about the citizens can be posted on the Internet, and played on the news yet, the citizens have no control over this public display (Censorship).

Although many people are against censorship, there are many pros to having the Internet and television censored. For ...

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...elevision censorship is a very controversial issue in the United States because some parents feel that the government should enforce censors and others believe that it is the parents responsibility to censor their children and control their access to the media.

Works Cited

“Censorship.” SIRS Discoverer. ProQuest, 2011. Web. 22 Feb. 2011. .

“Many Teens Spend 30 Hours a Week on ‘Screen Time’ during High School.” Science Daily. N.p., 14 Mar. 2008. Web. 3 Mar. 2011. .

Naik, Abhijit. “Internet Censorship Pros and Cons.” Buzzle. Buzzle, 25 Nov. 2010. Web. 17 Feb. 2011. .

Ruschmann, Paul. The FCC and Regulating Indecency. Philidelphia: Chelsea House, 2005. Print.

“V-Chip Raises Free Speech Concerns.” Issues and Controversies. N.p., 2011. Web. 28 Feb. 2011. .