1. Censorship Essay
‘ Is censorship a good or bad idea?’
Censorship is all about deciding on what people can see and deciding on what
people can view within the media. Censorship is the suppression of speech or
other public communication, which may be considered objectionable, harmful,
sensitive or inconvenient as determined by the government, media outlet or
controlling body. It clocks out content which mainly is harmful to people and it
aims to protect children and vulnerable people by block and removing content
from media to limit and restrict what they can see. The government can retain
people from seeing content in the media by removing it and only letting the
public see what the government want them to see. Censorship can happen on a
massive level like that or on a more local level where religious school remove the
big bang from the school curriculum so the children don’t have different beliefs
on how the world started. Censorship has lots of different areas from black
inappropriate content to removing content so people only know one way or
limits their opinions on something. Censorship can be editing parts from
television/TV show out, prevention of advertising, promote/restrict
political/religious views, prevent slender and libel. Restrict information from
people.
In my opinion I believe that censorship is a good thing but it depends on the
length that is taken and how extreme censorship goes. Censorship is a good thing
especially for protecting children. In our society we are in a digital world and
children from a very young age are using the internet, because of this children are
being exposed to material that they can access easily that is inappropriate for
their age for example porn, gambling, violence. Children are growing up being
show this from a young age which can be damaging to them growing up mentally.
Censorship in this area is good as it protect children from seeing this content on
the Internet and allows them to go on the Internet and be able to search and use
it in a safe manor. Also censorship protects children from watching a film, which
is not appropriate for their age. Censorship may limit, block the inappropriate
content from films and put a age limit on the film so children are not exposed to
content which is not appropriate for them to watch. In this circumstance
censorship is a good aspect as its protecting children from content, which they
don’t need to see and know about at such a young age.
Another circumstance which censorship is good for is blocking content from the
Internet, which may influence a paedophile or a murderer. Finding content on the
Internet is really easy and you can be exposed to it in a click of a button.
Videos/images of violent and inappropriate behaviour may influence these types
of people even more, which then influences their behaviours on society.
Censorship would block this content out and reduce the people who will be
influenced by this and this may reduce the crimes of what the people commit. In
this scenario I think censorship is a good aspect as it can reduce a lot of problems
and make the country a safer environment, which a lot links to the concept of
projecting children. Inappropriate TV programmes should be censored if they are
broadcasted before Watershed this is so young children do not watch these TV

2. programmes and get influenced easily into thinking that the for example a TV
programme contain very violent scenes a young boy may watch this and think
that that is normal behaviour and its alright to be that violent. Evidently what my
point is coming to that in my opinion the main aspect to Censorship is to protect
children to content that they should not be exposed to at such a young age.
Censorship in some circumstances is not needed. In one circumstance books have
been banned because they have been too inappropriate. For example Naked
Lunch by William S. Burroughs, this book was banned because it contained
obscene language and controversial matters. I do not think this booked should
have banned in this case. It’s an adult book in which it’s aimed at adult. If an adult
wants to read the book and they have no problem with what the book contains
then it should be their decision whether to read it or not. An adult should be able
to make their own decisions on whether they want to read that type of material.
Some people like to read controversial material for example 50 shades of Grey is
a very popular book which has been a best seller in the UK. This book is a very
controversial book and explores sex and S&M. People may see this as having an
explicit nature. So why has Naked Lunch been banned and 50 shades hasn’t? In
this circumstanced I think it is wrong that books are banned. It shouldn’t of been
published in the first place and the publishers should have looked into the
material of what the book had contained. If they ban one book containing this
sort of controversial matters than why don’t they ban all books containing it?
Adults are en charge of themselves and it they want to explore the explicit
content that the books have it should be their choice into what they read.
Another circumstance where I don’t agree that censorship can be used is within
the education. Within this scenario religious schools will not allow the children to
know the story of the big bang and how the earth started scientifically. They will
only teach the bible way. I think concerning the education this wrong because
children should be taught both ways and be lead to make their own decision on
what they believe in. Using censorship to hide theories from children in wrong in
this aspect and it should not be done. In America the states of Utah, Alabama,
Texas and Mississippi theses are very religious states, which the schools cannot
be taught the evolution theory but are only taught the creation theory.
The world we live in now the Internet is used everyday by billions of people. The
Internet can be very dodgy as it contains material that lots people do not want to
come into contact with such as porn, gambling, violence, indecent images and
videos etc… because of this the internet should have censorship to protect
people from the harmful content that it contains. Blocks should be put on porn
sites and other nasty sites that contain content which is indecent. This platform
of media is the most dangerous and therefore should contain censorship to stop
the harmful content reaching people and reaching children who are just
browsing the net. Internet censorship in China is conducted under a wide variety
of laws and administrative regulations. In accordance with these laws, the
government of China has made more than sixty Internet regulations to put the
Internet censorship in action. The Internet control in China has been seen as the
most extensive and advanced then any other countries in the world. The
government don’t just block access to websites but monitor the web use of

3. individuals. In my opinion I think this is a good idea that the government
monitor the Internet in a strict way because in the UK the Internet does get
monitored as strictly as China. It gets monitored as if you put the wrong kind of
words in then you will come up on the censorship and you will be monitored
closer than you was before. The government still allows you to search what you
want but they don’t ban websites. In my opinion I think that the UK should take a
stricter approach like china to the Internet and ban more websites that have
explicit content on. This would protect children from accessing these sites and
would stop a lot more wrong doings on the Internet. Comparing the censorship
over the Internet between The UK and China the UK are a lot more lenient with
what people can view on the internet. An article in the Huffington post suggests
that David Cameron is offering an opt out version to Internet censorship in the
UK. The article stated “In an effort to crack down on child pornography and the
number of children watching legal pornography, the PM has challenged
service providers to automatically filter out porn and "sensitive subjects"
unless customers specifically ask them not to.”
(http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/olly-lennard/why-david-cameronsintern_b_3653566.html) This shows that Britain still allows inappropriate
content to be shown to people. I think this is a very bad idea and all
pornography, unsuitable sites should be blocked to stop all the pedophiles and to
stop children being exposed to this material at such a young age. But on the
other hand is China to strict? As students at Harvard University investigated into
the Internet Censorship in China had blocked sites simply on religion (as china is
a communist country and does not support religion), health, the government,
education, news and entertainment. China blocks websites that they don’t want
their people to know about for example ‘The top 10 Google results using the key
words "Tibet," "Taiwan China" and "equality" were all blocked, as were eight
of the top 10 results using "democracy China" and "dissident China."’
(http://www.cbsnews.com/news/chinas-internet-censorship/) This is going
to one extreme to another as China is using propaganda to only select certain
pieces of information to give to what their people what to know. This links
with the Hypodermic Needle theory of giving information to people and them
believing the media. The Chinese media platform the Internet is controlled so
the government can hide things they don’t want their people in their country
to have an opinion on and know about. Both of the countries I have talked
about one are two lenient and the other is too extreme. In my opinion a
balance between this one be an acceptable censorship for example only
inappropriate sites to be blocked and there should be no option as in two opt
out of censorship.
Censorship can have a lot of counter arguments for it. There are reasons to be
against and reasons to be for which both have very good arguments. The Internet
is a big media platform that should have censorship as it’s the most dangerous
but I don’t agree that books should have censorship and Television. People may
disagree with me about this as some books can have very inappropriate content
in e.g. topic of cancer and people may think that these kind of books should not be
on the shelves of book stores and libraries as children can read this kind of books
easily and the content offends a lot of people. In my opinion they should not
censorship books, as it’s an adult choice weather they want to read that material
or not. If a person is easily offend by explicit material then they shouldn’t read

4. that particular book. As I said previously in the essay an adult can make their own
choice on what they want to read. When the book is in bookstores and libraries
people are aware to children can easily read the book and check it out/buy them
due to an incident in America where a 14-year-old boy checked out ‘Neonomicon’
(an adult graphic novel.) library book which was very inappropriate for his age.
In my opinion in this case the book should not have been in reach for a child to
get hold off. Overall censorship on books should not be because it should be the
reader’s decision to read the book or not. Television again should not be
censorship due to watershed. Watershed allows programs with violence and
inappropriate content to be shown after a certain time. The television should not
have censorship on after this time. The people usually watching the TV are adults
or children with adults, which can make their own choice weather they want to
watch this or allow their children to watch the content. People may disagree with
me and say that all TV programs should have censorship on because people can
be affected and offended by the content, which then can influence bad behavior.
To some extent I do agree with this as TV can really influence how people act.
Which cannot always be a positive thing. For example myself is very influenced
when I watch TV programs like skins I want to wear what they wear and do
things what they do. But then again adult should understand that they shouldn’t
copy/ be influenced by TV. Censorship should then only be on TV when an
inappropriate TV program is broadcasted before watershed. The inappropriate
parts should be cut out so children and younger people are not exposed to this for
example the Big bang theory when it is on in the daytime parts get edited out for
example the swearing and the rude humor. This is because daytime TV has a
younger audience than on an evening.
A gagging order is a legal order by a court or government, other times a private
order by an employer or other institution, restricting information or comment
from being made public. It’s used to conceal information from the public. In my
opinion I think the gagging order is a good thing. It allows vulnerable adults and
victims to hide their identity from the public. In other cases it allows murderers
to hide their identity from the public for example John Venerables, killer of Jamie
Bulger. When he was released from prison he changed his identity. It is a good
think because it protects children who have been victims and adults from people
that could possibly harm them or victimize them further. I think the gagging
order is a good think they can keep things from the public. The public can cause
more hassle if they knew peoples identities for example John Bulger would have a
lot of angry people after him which the gagging order prevents this. The gagging
order can be used in wrong ways as celebrities use them so magazines don’t
publish about their personal lives. Celebrities may abuse the gagging order by
doing this and this order is then used in the wrong way for example Ryan Giggs
using a gagging order for his affaire. This is wrong because he is using a positive
aspect for his negative behavior. In injunction to censorship this is a positive
thing to protect children and people. I think the gagging order is a good thing.
This makes sure that children do not get troubled further and it protects people
from harmful content of the public. The gagging order is like a censorship but for
people.

5. Censorship can also be in advertising. Advertising is a huge thing around the
world but is it right that children can see inappropriate adverts through the day?
Censorship allows inappropriate content for example Durex adverts to be shown
after watershed. The Durex advert is on after 9.00pm and the Ann summers
advert is on after 9.00pm too. Just because their adverts they still contain that is
inappropriate for children to watch. In my opinion I think censorship on
advertising is a good thing this is because it protects children from watching
adverts that contain content of that of a 15 age-rated film. The advertising
influences the audience constantly as they influence the audience into wanting to
buy a product. Negative adverts have negative affects on the audience showing a
violent advert to a younger audience may mentally affect them into thinking that
the behavior in that advert is right if the people are allowed to advertise it. This
also links with the debate effects. People are very influenced by the media. The
media surrounds us everyday due to Internet, print, TV. This obviously affects us
a lot. Adults understand that some of what the media portrays to us is not
acceptable to do. For example an advert on fighting if it was shown to children
they might think this is normal behavior. Children don’t understand as well as
adults and they can be influenced a lot easier. In my opinion I think it is a good
think that advertising has censorship or inappropriate adverts could be shown on
bus stops and on buses which children can see very easily just by walking down
the street.
In conclusion to the question ‘Is censorship a good or bad idea?’ I have come to
the conclusion that in some areas censorship can be a good aspect as it comes in
use the most for protecting children. I don’t think censorship should be used for
adult concepts, as adults are old enough to make their own decisions if they want
to view material or not. In some aspects censorship is good for reducing
pedophiles and stopping child pornography shown on the Internet. Overall
censorship is a good idea for protecting children mostly. It stops children viewing
and seeing content that will mentally physically and visually affect them.