Lec 11

I found what the proffessor to be saying about censorship iin the libraries to be interesting. After further google investigation I found this article. Although it dates back to 2003, I thought the ideas of censorship with books and that avalibility on the interenet to be interesting and relevent. Although it has been three years, the debate has not changed. Where is the line drawn on the internet, how do we protect children for the crudness of the world, and how much can we censor without violating the first ammenment?

Ok, well I'm going to say it.. and I'm sure there will be some dropped jaws. But let's face it people… we can not protect children from everything. You are not going to stop you children from learning about sex, you are not going to stop them from getting hurt, or finding out bad things. Well, I suppose there is always the possibility of a bubble, or moving to some desert island… Children ARE going to find out things are not made out of lollie pops and gum drops. People are going to hurt them, they are going to see bad things, it's just inevitable.

What needs to happen is not total censorship and total control, but instead a sence of responsibility and moral understanding. To offten children are sheltered from the nasty things that happen; and when they finally do leave the mother den, they are sure in for a shocker. In my opinion what needs to happen instead, is a way of coping, and teaching the child to choose for him/herself to do what is "right" and "wrong." Parents expecations are to low of their children; raise the bar higher.

Instead of saying "O, Tommy, that doesn't happen, it's just make-believe." We need to work on "Well, Betty-Sue, there are some nasty things that happen, but we know we are better than that, and try not to be involved with that. There is always a better solution."

This is of course, NOT to say, that we should be bringing up porn pictures to children, and that there should be no censorship. This merely was to say that many times people take censorship a few levels to high in this crazy world of the internet.

*Same disclaimer! I'm glad my blogs are finally able to post.