Are you sure that your child uses the Internet connection for educational purposes only? Do you control the sources of information your child chooses? The century of accessible information provides as many possibilities for cultural development as challenges to come across unverified and low-quality data. Parents expect the youth to differentiate between bad and good in real everyday life but do not rely on their ability to switch the channel or open the page with another URL address if something goes wrong. Filtering the sources of information by the adults is like growing the plants in the greenhouse, hiding them from all the dangers of the surrounding world.
The issue of parents’ censorship and unexplained prohibitions is only one more symptom of the generation gap in the family and their inability to accept the children as personalities. Though this kind of censorship is not regarded to be a violation of personal freedom, Danz, John suggests speaking to the children and explaining to them that the censored episodes are an integral part of life, but there are issues more interesting and significant, that is why one should switch the channel, making this conscious choice.
Several decades earlier the communications were not so developed, the schoolchildren had to visit libraries instead of reading the online materials and had to wait for the letters from their friends for weeks. Accessible sources of information changed people’s views and lifestyles. Why dig the library archives over, if the search for the online article of the journal will take several seconds? The global net Internet became the storage of diverse information, including useless and harmful materials as well. The most visited sites contain the most advertisement and nobody is responsible for its content.
The question of accelerated development of the present-day youth is discussed at different levels, it is impossible to prevent children from hearing and viewing the information which was not meant for them. This process deprives the children of the essential part of their childhood – from belief in miracles and good which always conquers evil. We should take certain measures before upbringing the generations of young skeptics, but censorship is not the way out.
Let us start solving the problems of censorship by reducing the censorship of our children’s leisure. Prohibitions only heighten the interest in the blocked information. We are dissatisfied when somebody is empowered to ban the information, which we do not find abusive or harmful. Lane, David felt insulted that the government blocked the access to the sites by customers from Minnesota. Another interesting example of senseless censorship is the list of the prohibited songs which was drawn up by Clear Channel Communications after the 11 September events. “The list included ‘Hells Bells’ by AC/DC, ‘In the Air Tonight by Phil Collins, or any song that had a title or subject matter dealing with fire, the sky, air, tickets, ducking, and running, rockets, etc” (Danz).
No two minds think alike, that is why the songs causing negative effects on one person or even a group of people may seem innocuous to other listeners. Willing to protect the children from the negative influences, parents often deprive them of the opportunities of making their own choices and differentiating between good and bad.
I appeal to the parents controlling every step of their children. It is not the question of the laws prohibiting censorship or limiting the children’s ways of self-expression. It is a question of the picture of life which can be distorted due to the priorities shifted by the unexplained censorship. I ask you to communicate with your children and respect their personal views.
Bibliography
Danz, John. “Censorship in America”. News Blaze. 2010. Web.
Lane, David. “Internet Censorship in the US? Or Just Law Enforcement?” Linux Journal. 2009. Web.