Education Over Censorship Essay -- School Technology Essays

Education Over Censorship Remember when you were a kid and you discovered something taboo or something that was considered adult? Didn’t it seem wrong, but exciting at the same time? It was something that was kept from your eyes or ears, but you were able to find it again when you wanted to. This is why there’s censorship in the world. There are things out there that children shouldn’t see. But determining what kids shouldn’t see has been plaguing our society forever. If we censor certain mediums just so kids can’t see them, then adults are also restricted. It’s like burning the house down to roast the pig. But, what if children were educated better? Even if they were educated about the taboo subjects such as pornography or obscenity, it could result in a society where these subjects weren’t taboo. Just blocking anything that has to do with sex, for example, could harm a child’s ability to learn important lessons about sex. If children are educated better, both at home and in school, censorship doesn’t have to be used and the idea of free speech could be respected much better than it is now. Unfortunately, when all those old dead presidents wrote the constitution over 200 years ago, they didn’t have TV, radio, or the internet. The fact that all the first amendment says is that congress can’t stop the freedom of speech or the press leaves this amendment open to endless debate over how it should be translated to modern day terms. If only Thomas Jefferson had in mind the KKK, Neo-Nazis, and the porn industry on the internet when he helped write the constitution. The Communications Decency Act was a huge block of nearly anything remotely obscene on the internet in order to protect the interests of minors. Among other... ...ble <http://researcher.sirs.com>. (8 December 1999). Kristol, Irving. "Liberal Censoship and the Common Culture."l Society Sep/Oct 1999: 5-11. EBSCOhost MasterFILE Premier. Available <http://www.epnet.com/ehost/>. (8 December 1999). Meecks, Brock N. "The Obscenity of Decency." HotWired and Wired Privacy Archive. <http://hotwired.lycos.com/Lib/Privacy/exon.privacy.html>. (8 December 1999).] Melillo, Wendy. "Block Shot." Brandweek 6 September 1999: pIQ12. EBSCOhost MasterFILE Premier. Available <http://www.epnet.com/ehost/>. (8 December 1999). Storck, Thomas. "Censorship Can Be Beneficial." Censorship: Opposing Viewpoints Eds. David Bender, et al. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1997. Wallace, Jonathan D. "Pervasive Problem." Reason October 1998: 52-58. EBSCOhost MasterFILE Premier. Available <http://www.epnet.com/ehost/>. (8 December 1999).