The Impact of Media on Children
Stan, Kyle, Catman and Kenny - four-foul mouthed third graders who abuse each other and find delight in making fun of authority figures. Yet they possess a dumb innocence that makes their bad behavior forgivable to anyone with an honest memory of their childhood. Most parents do not approve of the bleepable expletives that fly out of the kids mouths on ‘South Park’ or the fact that Kenny dies violently in every episode. A lot of people want shows like this to be censored or taken off of the air. Parents try to shelter their children too much. They should let them experience life in the real world and not censor everything that they disagree with.
Some shows can and cannot be shown on television because of their content and some parents want select shows off of the air because of their language, violence and profanity, but we as individuals should be able to choose what shows we want to watch.
Television networks have a hard time deciding what shows they want to put on the air. They have to put a lot of thought into picking the correct shows to draw in the attention of the viewer. They first have to realize what type of audience they want to have. If it is a network like Nickelodeon, then they will want to look for something a child would be entertained by. If it is ESPN, then they would want something that the sports fanatic would love. Another point that they want to have in a good show is how it relates to reality. Every television show needs some reality. If the show’s content is meant to be able to happen in real life, then it should look realistic. If the age group will relate to the show’s topic is also put into consideration(Nesbit).
Networks also have to figure out if the show is useable or not by seeing how much violence, language and profanity. Again they have to consider the show’s target audience. There wouldn’t be the same amount of violence allowed to be shown on ‘Barney’ as there would be allowed on ‘America’s Most Wanted.’
Television has now put a rating on TV shows. It is based on the same principal that the rating system of movies is. In movie theaters, G means the movie is suitable for all ages, PG means some material is not suitable for pre-teenagers and parental guidance is suggested, PG-13 means that parents should be strongly cautioned to give special viewing guidance to those under the age of ...
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...not be able to prohibit the viewing of certain shows. Parents should be the ones making the decision of their child’s viewing. Even if the networks do censor shows, doing so will not make a big difference on anyone’s life. If parents want to keep their children innocent then they will never be able to see the light of day because there is violence happening around us at all times.
In the First Amendment, there are five freedoms mentioned: exercise of religion, press, assembly, petition to the government, and speech. If they censor television, then they are breaking that amendment by not letting everyone have freedom of speech (Nesbit).
We cannot protect all of the children in the world by censoring a few television shows. If anyone is at fault for exposing their child to the bad in the world, it is their parents. Remember what the 8 year old said about South Park’s swear words, “My daddy says them every single day” (Newsweek 60). It is the parents’ choice if they want to protect their children from all of the violence and profanity that is out there, it is in no way a choice of television networks. Everyone has a right to speak their minds and not have their thoughts censored.
Americans hate the word censorship. It puts fire into the eyes of any self proclaimed, speaker of the people. but is censorship that bad, or that wrong? Censorship is an enormous part of the stability of society. One of the many types of censorship takes place on the airwaves. Comedians, George Carlin, Howard Stern, and Mncow Muller had an enormous effect on the ideals of censorship in this era, trying to prove that the FCC had no right to censor radio airwaves. They questioned why words we all hear at home cannot be spoken on the radio if listeners are given a proper warning. However, there is no need for young children to be exposed to such lude material and the American people must be more reasonable about morals and stop worrying about our “First Amendment” rights.
...from the other side of this argument is the fact that profanity and sexually explicit material shouldn’t be exposed to young children without their parental permission. But telling teenagers and young adults who are mature enough to choose what they want to listen to is completely wrong and unjust. The key word here is choice. As stated earlier, the thing that makes this country truly great is the idea that we have the right to listen to whatever we choose we want to listen to, not what a censor thinks you should be exposed to, it’s ridiculous.
Many people believe the most precious constitutional right is the first amendment. People may censor due to content that is considered to be too violent, or obscene, or even the language may be too vulgar. There are many reasons given for censorship in a classroom or library, a book or other learning resource may be restricted or banned because it includes social, political, or religious views believed to be “inappropriate or “threatening.” In the classroom or in the schools, the teachers or the administrators are the determining factor on what’s appropriate. In a community there are other certain people that look over textbooks, movies, and other published sources. On a federal or higher level sometimes it’s the legislators. The basic right to freedom of expression in the United States is protected by the First Amendment to the constitution. In 1791, the bill of rights was the base of basic rights for citizens 4 years after signing of the constitution. There was controversy over to include the Bill of Rights when the United States was founded. One of the rights the Bill of Rights protects is freedom of spee...
Censorship has been a big part of the world’s history and especially America’s history. One of the most quoted amendments to the United States constitution is the first amendment; “Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press ...” This amendment guaranteeing free speech, press, and religion is still heavily debated and contested today. Censorship, as a challenge to free speech and press has been allowed many times and has been heavily debated itself. Many people censor for many different reasons and in many different forms. Censorship itself is not always a bad thing and has in some cases been used for protection of the general population.
...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.
Censorship is a way of controlling the actions of the people. However, censorship is clearly not necessary. The television programs you watch, music you listen to, and books you read are choices. America is based on choices. No one can make you watch, read, or listen to anything. So, if you do not like what is on television, there is a simple solution: close the book, change the radio or television station. Supreme Court Justice William Douglas said it best when he stated, “Restriction of free thought and speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us.” Does America want to take the chance of destroying everything on which it was founded, and possibly destroy itself? It is something we, the people, need to sit down and think about.
Teachers suspended, radio and television personalities fired, authors disinvited to speaking events, all because their words, opinions or shows did not agree with what a handful of people consider appropriate. One would think these types of situations regarding censorship happened decades ago, not in a time now, where people pride themselves on having an open-mind and the ability of forward thinking. However, censorship still prevails in America today, and not only censorship of pornography or violence on television, but it seeps into our textbooks and classrooms too, all in the name of protecting the children.
Exercising the freedom of speech has two sides: the speaker and the listener. Censorship is unfair to both sides. When it takes away the speaker’s Constitutional freedom of expression, it simultaneously revokes the listener’s right to develop an informed opinion based on unobstructed truth. This opinion has been supported by the courts. In 1982, an informal agreement between several broadcasters from major media outlets known as the Code of Broadcaster Conduct, which banned “depictions of sexual encounters, violence and drug use, as well as excessive advertising,” was nullified because it was a violation of First Amendment rights (“Broadcast Decency”). Excessive censorship is viewed as unnecessary by both the American public and by the government that endorses it.
Censorship is the practice of concealing parts of a book, movie, show, or any other form of media. Media can be censored in many ways; one of these is to block out the offensive sections of the content. This is generally done when the content of said media is not considered overall offensive or inappropriate but has derogatory and/or blasphemous language. Another way Media can be censored is to have it banned completely. For a book to be banned, it must first be challenged. According the American Library Association, a challenge “is an attempt to remove or restrict materials, based upon the objections of a person or group.” The question over censorship has been debated for years: Should we be allowed to ban Medias we deem unfit and/or inappropriate from our children?
mainly with the content of the shows. Many of the shows on television portray violence, drugs, sexual activity, and profanity. People who watch these shows see what the actors and actresses are doing and then feel it is all right for them to do the same things. If a kid is watching a show were one of the actors or actresses use profanity, they will feel it is all right for them to use the same language.
Censorship is an important and essential part of television. Without the presence of censorship television would be unsuitable for our younger viewers because censorship helps to filter out the appearances of nudity, real life violence, the use of profanity and other obscene gestures during the youth viewing hours. However, during the prime time viewing hours it?s a different story. The method the television stations use is a mere waste of time and money because a little symbol in the corner of the screen is not going to prevent a child from watching the program. The only way this method can work is if the parents/guardian is there to change the channel but let?s be realistic, how many parents/guardians actuarially have the time to monitor everything there children watch. So most children do end up viewing these programs anyway, and whether we like it o...
should be censored to an extent, yet they do not see the significant effect that regular television shows really have on their children.As a child grows, more and more statistics are proving that they are being exposed to too many shows that should be censored. Many studies have concluded that young children are most affected by what they see on television (Dritz, Russel 1996). For example, a child that watches a cartoon with a lot
...nst TV violence; they only regulate language and sexual content (Brown,2). The American television industry and movie industry are very prude regarding sex and language, but very permissive on the topic of violence. Many movies that have brief glimpses of nudity, or more than one use of profane language get rated R, yet action flicks with thousands of killings in them are rated PG-13 (Horn and Zeitchik, 2). Some question if the ratings would be more appropriate if the government established the regulations rather then the voluntary industry. Movies are rated by the Motion Picture Association of America, know also by the acronym MPAA. Television shows are rated by the network or broadcaster, that the show plays on. The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) rates video games but there are no set laws that prohibits children from buying games rated for adults.
Censorship of the media for children is necessary, but should not be handled by government or other groups. Instead it should be directed and controlled by parents. Censorship for children is necessary because the average American view’s 100,000 acts of violence on TV before reaching t...
Censorship has been around for a long time causing a huge controversy in our society as well as other parts all over the world. The article on Broadcast Decency Rules gave informing information pertaining to censorship, but I’m still against censoring the media.