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Media, entertainment, censorship

XtremelyBaneful

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tl;dr at bottom

Okay, so I making this thread on impulse. I was gonna make it in the misc. video games section but unfortunately, that part of shh! does not get enough traction.

What is y'alls opinion on censorship in the media, and I mean for kids? In music, we have the parental advisory sticker, for television, we have the age group on the top right corner of the screen, for film, we have the MPAA, and for video games, we have ratings. But it's not all black and white, and it's certainly not perfect. Let's start with music.

I remember reading a post in our fellow MessiahDecoy123's politic correctness thread (now closed), someone posted saying something along the lines of " take issue with someone like Eminem basically teaching kids to use homophobic slurs, because it's directly affecting language that kids use and causes emotional damage to kids, words do have consequences."

My response to that was,
Letting your children listen to uncensored Eminem is no different from letting them play GTA, or letting them watch rated R or NC 17 movies.
And I stand by that statement. After thinking some, I realize what Eminem meant every time he was attacked and said it is a parent's duty to tell the kids what is right and what is wrong. His music, is R rated music. Should you let your children listen to that stuff in the first place? No, you should not. But if you ARE gonna allow them to do that, you need to take it upon yourself to tell them not to say those words if you think it's important they know that.

And the censorship here is pretty bad. YouTube videos will not censor Anaconda, or the Rap Dog (all the vulgarity), but "my cat saved my son" gets censored? WHY????? What is this nonsense, YouTube???



I love YouTube and I think is one of the greatest things to have graced society, but it's got horrible censorship issues. This is disastrous, if you ask me.

Now, on to movies. I say this is quite standard... when you go to the movies and you're a parent, it's usually for like PG movies and nowadays they ask for ID so kids can't get into the movies unless of course they know someone or have fake IDs... but we all know what they use that for in the first place. But for that, they'd have to be considerably older to look their impersonating picture.

Too much violence and too much sexual content, and I don't think I would want my kids to watch the movie at all. Too much cursing is easier to handle though. Television words pretty much the same way.

Because, most stuff that come onto cable television are censored anyway. I can't speak too much on this topic.

But what I can be a loudmouth about is video games. Terrence C. Carson, the voice of Kratos, was asked in an interview if the stereotype between cinema and video game ratings will ever end. It's quite a good interview, here's a link to it In his opinion, video games will always be perceived as a children's item first, and that's never going to change. With this stigma, violent video games will always be fought by anti-video game peeps, even though for over 20 years, M rated games have graced consoles and platforms selling tens of millions of units.

That's right, M rated games. How is it any different from a parental advisory sticker or a rater R stamp? This isn't exactly a censorship issue, because it is on the parents... STOP buying M rated games for your kids, STOP thinking it is okay. And I mean kids who are like, really young. Children. Teenagers may be mature enough but it is the PARENTS' fault that GTA is in the hands of the kids. That's who these ant-gaming peeps need to understand.

But if all this was too much for y'all to read, lemme just ask, or paraphrase for the great TC Carson, do you think it is unfair that violent video games get so much hate even though they're another form of entertainment? Do you think it is okay that YouTube will not censor videos with sexually explicit content, as well as language, and will not censor it? How about film? Do you think the ratings/content is delivered properly to its respective audiences? Do you think it is okay for vulgar musicians to continue using their free speech to the max in their music and disregard the consequences?

Is this more of a parenting issue?

The gamergate issue is a whole nother one but there's a thread on that already. I wouldn't be opposed to having that discussed here because I have no idea what it is.
 
Last edited:
Mods, he speaks out against you! Banish him to the ends of time! :p
 
Because I can.

MWAHAHAHA!!!
 
Oh my god, are you guys serious

close the thread then. That's seriously not what I wanted this to be.
 
Kids have been watching uncensored content behind their parents backs for decades. Nothing has really changed IMO. Youtube more than likely will never have a ratings system because imposing one will cost them too much time and money and be near impossible to sort through given the sheer volume of footage they deal with on an hourly basis.
 
As a non-parent it's probably easier to say this, but I'd say this is an issue of parenting. Censorship is arbitrary across the board and beyond our individual control; instilling values and a sense of right and wrong isn't.

If I were 13 today I'd watching the worst of YT and even notorious sites like LiveLeak. Like jmc said, kids have been going behind parents' backs since like forever. If I had a kid today, I wouldn't prohibit them from mature content. I'd offer actual parent advice and not let a sticker do my job, let the kid know what's he getting from those labelled games/movies/media.
 
do you think it is unfair that violent video games get so much hate even though they're another form of entertainment?

It's all about knowing the difference between fiction and reality. I don't think it's necessarily wrong for a (young) teenager to play GTA as long as they know this difference. It's entertainment and a way to do things you wouldn't get away with in real life. It's escapism. If you know your child is sensitive when it comes to these things you should enforce some rules, sure. Then again, the parent may be the one that is too sensitive. To say that GTA is somehow "wrong" is utterly stupid.

Do you think it is okay that YouTube will not censor videos with sexually explicit content, as well as language, and will not censor it?

YouTube's system is mostly arbitrary. Some nudity is allowed, some is not. In the end, YouTube (or Google) doesn't owe us uncensored content. It's their website and they can enforce whatever rules they like. A site like Liveleak is there for the content YouTube forbids like excessive gore, so I don't see what's the problem.

How about film? Do you think the ratings/content is delivered properly to its respective audiences?

I don't disagree with a rating system in and of itself. People of all ages should have some indication of what they're in for. What I disagree with is the power the MPAA has over content creators and the audience. The MPAA is a wall filmmakers have to climb to get their films out there and they may feel the need to compromise their vision to appease the anonymous people on the rating board. Furthermore, the "rules" the rating board use are stupid and make no sense at all. You can use the f-word in a PG-13 movie but only a few times and it can not be meant in a sexual way! Get over yourself.

Do you think it is okay for vulgar musicians to continue using their free speech to the max in their music and disregard the consequences?

Use all the vulgarity you want. F-word, c-word, whatever. If an artist wants to use these words in their art there should be nobody stopping them. What's gonna happen? A 14-year old kid is gonna learn the f-word from Eminem? Oh, no!

Like jmc said, kids are going to access adult content no matter what. Hell, before the internet kids would find ways to get adult magazines to jerk off to. So what?

What parents need to do is talk to their children about these things. What happens in movies and video games is all fake. As long as a kid understands that they should be fine. Instead of shielding your kids from the real world, educate them and build their critical thinking skills. Eminem uses a gay slur (I don't know if he did this, just an example), okay.. is this wrong or is this right? Teach kids to evaluate these things. Don't shield them from it. Kids will find out eventually that the world is in fact a pretty vulgar place.
 
Oh my god, are you guys serious

close the thread then. That's seriously not what I wanted this to be.

Calm down. Unless the mods actually felt it was a bannable/garbage topic they would have closed it. I'm just messing with you.

Worse comes to worse, if you ever think you might get in trouble over a topic or something, OM a mod. They'll be able to verify if it's good or not.
 
Calm down. Unless the mods actually felt it was a bannable/garbage topic they would have closed it. I'm just messing with you.

Worse comes to worse, if you ever think you might get in trouble over a topic or something, OM a mod. They'll be able to verify if it's good or not.

I was calm at first. Then Victar's post made me bug out coz I thought you guys were serious.
 
It's all about knowing the difference between fiction and reality. I don't think it's necessarily wrong for a (young) teenager to play GTA as long as they know this difference. It's entertainment and a way to do things you wouldn't get away with in real life. It's escapism. If you know your child is sensitive when it comes to these things you should enforce some rules, sure. Then again, the parent may be the one that is too sensitive. To say that GTA is somehow "wrong" is utterly stupid.
There is a lot of things wrong for underage kids playing GTA, not just the violence. Personally this for the same reasons as not wanted your kid to watch an R rated movie, I wouldn't want GTA V or cod in their hands.


YouTube's system is mostly arbitrary. Some nudity is allowed, some is not. In the end, YouTube (or Google) doesn't owe us uncensored content. It's their website and they can enforce whatever rules they like. A site like Liveleak is there for the content YouTube forbids like excessive gore, so I don't see what's the problem.
That's true but the fact that they will censor "my cat saved my son" but not Anaconda is beyond stupid. Why would they think one of these videos is wrong for children and not the other, what is their reasoning?

I don't disagree with a rating system in and of itself. People of all ages should have some indication of what they're in for. What I disagree with is the power the MPAA has over content creators and the audience. The MPAA is a wall filmmakers have to climb to get their films out there and they may feel the need to compromise their vision to appease the anonymous people on the rating board. Furthermore, the "rules" the rating board use are stupid and make no sense at all. You can use the f-word in a PG-13 movie but only a few times and it can not be meant in a sexual way! Get over yourself.
The rules have changed a bit. malcolm x was rated pg 13 but they used the f word quite a few times.

Use all the vulgarity you want. F-word, c-word, whatever. If an artist wants to use these words in their art there should be nobody stopping them. What's gonna happen? A 14-year old kid is gonna learn the f-word from Eminem? Oh, no!

Like jmc said, kids are going to access adult content no matter what. Hell, before the internet kids would find ways to get adult magazines to jerk off to. So what?

What parents need to do is talk to their children about these things. What happens in movies and video games is all fake. As long as a kid understands that they should be fine. Instead of shielding your kids from the real world, educate them and build their critical thinking skills. Eminem uses a gay slur (I don't know if he did this, just an example), okay.. is this wrong or is this right? Teach kids to evaluate these things. Don't shield them from it. Kids will find out eventually that the world is in fact a pretty vulgar place.
[/quote]Kids will who find their way will get their hands in the cookie jar yes, like "whatever you don't know won't hurt you" but if you did have power of what you could do, to at least shut the people up who say that Eminem is a bad influence to them.
 
I don't believe in censorship. People should be able to say and write whatever they want. If you don't like it, don't participate in it, and don't let your child participate in it. Simple as that. Your child could take your car keys while you're sleeping and drive your car into a river. Should we ban cars? No. So why are we freaking out about guns and video games? Your kid could take your car and run over 50 people like in Grand Theft Auto, yet we're concerned about the guns and not the cars?? Does that make any sense whatsoever? Let's ban kitchen knives while we're at it. And sporks.
 
I don't believe in censorship. People should be able to say and write whatever they want. If you don't like it, don't participate in it, and don't let your child participate in it. Simple as that. Your child could take your car keys while you're sleeping and drive your car into a river. Should we ban cars? No. So why are we freaking out about guns and video games? Your kid could take your car and run over 50 people like in Grand Theft Auto, yet we're concerned about the guns and not the cars?? Does that make any sense whatsoever? Let's ban kitchen knives while we're at it. And sporks.

In a lot of instances, "ban x" is just a way for people to ignore any sense of responsibility and/or nuance. We should try to steer away from banning things as much as possible and maybe even legalize some things that are banned now.
 
Someone hasn't met the mods. :o
 
Youtube is more or less self policing, and I'm ok with that. TV and film isn't open like the internet, it means you can do whatever the bloody hell you want. The fact is you can't censor the internet. Even if some site like Youtube was to implement a rating system of sorts any person can set up a website within a day and upload their own content fill with all the sex, violence and profanity they desire. You can't prevent it, all you can do is be open with kids about it. It's no good trying to stop them from watching stuff no matter what blocking software you use because kids are far more tech savvy than adults given them credit for.
 
im so glad you bumped a thread that hasn't been posted in, in two years to tell us all that
 

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