[Jolly Well]

Pornography and something that is racist just to be racist I'll agree should probably not be viewed - but where the lines are is what is difficult.

Example:

Debbie does whatever - We can all likely agree this has zero artistic merit and contributes none of the virtues of society we want to be upheld. Not being watched by current or future children while in my home, and I hopefully impact their life enough to where it isn't their first DvD purchase when they go off to college.

However....

Who decides what is pornographic? At one time, James Joyce's Ulysses was banned as pornographic. There are many more instances where some artistic or literary work was called pornographic simply because some group of people wished it to be so.

Racism simply sucks. (I wanted to be more intelligent there, but getting to the point works well at times...) I hope my kids grow up in a diverse world where everyone gets along.... fantasy I know.

I recently watched a documentary about the Arian Nation and Ku Klux Klan. A large portion of the program was footage of ignorant people speaking ignorance to other ignorant people. Much of the program used racist language and props. There is no doubt that much of the content of the program was racist in nature.

By watching the program, I become more educated on the issue. I recognized how absurdly stupid the people that followed this way of life truly were. The people in the documentary were uneducated and their ideals were low rent. I listened to their message in its entirety and am no more the racist for doing so.

There were some racist programs in the past - Archie Bunker, Disney, Betty Boop, so on and so forth.... They were largely accepted in society of the time and therefor live on by way of T.V. Land and DvDs, and today we recognize them for what they are which is why most programs today don't follow in their footprints.

There are also times when people call "racist" when it really isn't. I've seen on the news when a cop shoots and kills a black man that was "allegedly" committing a crime. Sure enough, Reverend Al Sharpton is on the nightly news calling out the police for being racist and shooting a black man when in reality he was shot not because he was a man, or black, or whatever - but for the fact he was placing an innocent in danger. I am in no way saying that every instance of a police shooting happens as this. Police corruption is another issue, and I've no doubt that we have some racist cops - citing one instance from our past as an example

I have serious issues of formal/official censoship from the government, schools, etc.
Parental censorship is something entirely different. My qualms aren't with parents forbidding pornography and the like, as I will do it myself.

Speaking from the view point of parental censorship, what do you consider inappropriate for you children to watch?

Baby is only a few days past 3 months, so not speaking from parental control so much as personal ideology.

Outside of material like pornography which have no artistic or merit in society, I cannot imagine banning anything. I may forbid content at times for age/maturity, but eventually they will have access to the material when they are at a level they can fully comprehend it (or at least are mature enough to discuss it with myself or their mother).

I'm en route to my Masters and in a recent class this topic was discussed in class.

In Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles novel, there is a little girl who lies to get her way. In a nutshell, it all works out for her and there are no negative consequences to her lying. Some students thought this would "teach" their kids to lie and mentioned they would not allow their children to read it.

I don't feel children need to be "taught" to lie; it's going to happen. The novel mentioned is very well written and one of the better novels avaliable to children (and adults) today. Banning it is absurd to me as all the child will get out of it is never having experienced the journey they would have taken by reading it....


EDIT - posts were added while I was writing this...

So, no government censoring is ideal? Does this view still stand if Girls Gone Wild commercials were to go uncensored?

Yes! No government censoring is ideal, but not realistic. Not that I would want pronography on my televison during every commerical break, but rather that if I were to have a daughter - she would not grow up in a society that would expect her to behave as such when she is 21. I know this isn't a censorship issue, but a yearning for a better society; but alas I find myself dreaming.


You nailed it when you said you didn't want parental guidelines so much as freedom for the parents to censor their childrens exposure. We completely agree there. The issue of a more official form of censoring is personal preference that is going to include so much of our persons that I don't think it can ever really be summarized completely. Politics, Religion, Families, and so much more are going to play a role in tose decisions. I am pretty liberal on decisions such as these. I recognize it and fully realize that a die-hard conservative will oppose my views down to the foundation and that there are so many categories on "in-between" that we can disagree on this and agree on that. Either way, a healthy discussion/debate is a good thing.