Censorship

[Galletea]

Yahtzee's Hitler comment seems to have sparked alot of discssion recently, and with the new Silent Hill title refused in Australia I wonder what your thoughts are on censorship. I don't just mean videogames, but films, music, everyday life.

Personally I am against censorship, and where I appreciate that certain things are unsuitable for certain audiences, I believe we should be allowed to make our own decisions.

I'm fairly sure that at some point most of us will have heard a joke about, for instance, Gary Glitter, Harold Shipman, the McCans, the virginia school massacre or something similar. Are these less offensive because of the numbers of people involved? If we censor things we don't like to be reminded of where will it stop?

Is there a point where we must draw the line?

 

[DannyDamage]

Censor nothing!

Either EVERYTHING is allowed to be funny, or NOTHING is.

Once you censor something because (for ie.) Jewish people are offended by a joke, then the Christians will expect to censor anything, then someone else and so on until there are no jokes left to laugh at.

Except Paris Hilton

EDIT: Good things to watch re: this topic are South Park's "Cartoon Wars" episodes and Family Guy's "PTV" episode. All dealing with censorship in one way or another. As you can tell, rather than link folk to wiki or youtube for a reference, I simply suggest full fecking episodes of things!

"Check out that side-boob. That turning you on?.........Well it shouldn't, because it's my side-boob!"

 

[poleboy]

Content may not be removed because it is inappropriate, but everything slightly offensive should be marked clearly as such. That is my opinion.

And for the love of God, start treating sex better than violence. I cannot stress this enough. The two things are not even remotely related!

 

[flatearth]

Poleboy is right, nothing should be censored, but it should be told what the product contains.
Sure there are age ratings on games now, but only a handful of parents really look what it is when they are buying games for their children.
Luckily goverments are occasionally stupid in their censorship attempts. Finland started to censor foreign child-porn sites, even though the constitution forbids this. It created massive controversy because the list of sites censored turn to be more arbitary, and some did have nothing to do with any kind of porn. Luckily, the censoring mean is a list of unaccessable sites on the dns server, so you can just connect to a free dns server and get around it all.

 

[Galletea]

I agree, and I think the main problem with censors is determining boundaries. Who is too decide when the public cannot be exposed to some idea? If it continues they will err on the safe side so many times that there will no longer be freedom of expression in an attempt to protect us.

 

[Xaryn Mar]

I can se the reasoning behind censorship but I do not think it is a good thing to censor. In regards to film, games etc. I would say that the "censorship" should be with those who want to buy/use it or with the parents of said person. Off course this would require people to actually think about what they are about to do for once (how I wish that people would actually do that). With regards to jokes, I can understand why someone could be offended by e.g. a racist joke or a joke about holocaust. But it is in the human nature to joke about horrible things it is one of the ways we cope with it and racist jokes are after all just jokes in the same vein as jokes about blondes. Usually nothing bad is meant by it.

Sorry for a medium length post.

 

[DannyDamage]

XARYN'S MEDIUM LENGTH POST
Sorry for a medium length post.

Awww, bless. I've seen people apologise for short posting and long posting, but never for medium posting. lol

 

[gragimor]

i agree on the point of clearly saying whats actualy COULD be not suitable for children in, lets say, a computer game. that a game in wich you need to trow ping pong ball in empty beer cups gets a adult rating becouse of aclohol content, is not realy logical (beer pong, or whatever its called now, for the wii). also, get games and movies on one line, starship troopers is aged 15+ in our country, and there are closeups from people litterly getting torn to pieces by aliens.
howcome that is less harmfull for children then trowing a pingpong ball in an empty cup, according to the age rating?
also, the whole point of games causing violent behaviour is overrated, most people actualy get to LOSE their aggression in a game. of course there are SOME nuts that might get idea's from games like manhunt or something, but if you are crazy enough, you can even get murderous after seeing a 4 year old eating icecream.

i think you shouldn't censor anything, but make GOOD age GUIDELINES, and actualy get parents to far to start paying attention to them.

 

[Galletea]

I suppose one problem is with common sense, or the seeming lack of it in modern society. Surely someone would know if something is appropriate for, say their children, or their social surroundings and I think it's when we lose sight of common sense that censors are called in to think for us.

 

[Xaryn Mar]

Awww, bless. I've seen people apologise for short posting and long posting, but never for medium posting. lol

Heh, you are welcome.

 

[Monkfish Acc.]

Censorship has always gotten on my nerves. It's like a bunch of middle-aged soccer moms trying to make everyone believe boobies don't exist.

I understand that there are some things children shouldn't see, but it should be up to the parents to set limits and enforce them. Just because one person is uptight and snobbish doesn't mean everyone else has to suffer.

 

[smallharmlesskitten]

Fuck the censors... Free boobie for all

 

[Monkfish Acc.]

Fuck the censors... Free boobie for all

Just one? Aren't they better in pairs?

 

[Zallest]

And for the love of God, start treating sex better than violence. I cannot stress this enough. The two things are not even remotely related!

I love when people do this. I find it funny!

A case where a grandmother was upset cause there was a sex scene in grand theft auto (Hot Coffee Scene) and she was more upset that her grandchild was seeing SEX rather then being upset with the fact that by pressing a few buttons BOOM! Chainsaw! DECAPITATE THEM HOOKERS!

 

[smallharmlesskitten]

Fuck the censors... Free boobie for all

Just one? Aren't they better in pairs?

Boobie is an accepted plural term in angry drunk man land

 

[DannyDamage]

And for the love of God, start treating sex better than violence. I cannot stress this enough. The two things are not even remotely related!

I love when people do this. I find it funny!

A case where a grandmother was upset cause there was a sex scene in grand theft auto (Hot Coffee Scene) and she was more upset that her grandchild was seeing SEX rather then being upset with the fact that by pressing a few buttons BOOM! Chainsaw! DECAPITATE THEM HOOKERS!

Sorry, but again with the South Park references; this sounds like the anime episode where the boys all buy ninja weapons and Butters gets hurt. Turns out the parents don't care about the violence as long as there are naked bodies to complain about. Typical!

 

[Zallest]

Are we taking into the account the "To soon" factor of censorship? like how you can't making jokes because it was to soon and won't be funny because the event is still fresh in the mind?

or

Is this about internet censorship? where the "To soon" factor doesn't apply (See Assholes Handbook page 257) and any and every joke is made to offend and enjoy?

Personally i think some things should be censored for a while...

 

[Logan Keller]

Fuck the censors... Free boobie for all

Just one? Aren't they better in pairs?

Boobie is an accepted plural term in angry drunk man land

Could mean a uniboob as well.

 

[smallharmlesskitten]

Fuck the censors... Free boobie for all

Just one? Aren't they better in pairs?

Boobie is an accepted plural term in angry drunk man land

Could mean a uniboob as well.

True but then she would be fuck ugly

 

[electric discordian]

Content may not be removed because it is inappropriate, but everything slightly offensive should be marked clearly as such. That is my opinion.

And for the love of God, start treating sex better than violence. I cannot stress this enough. The two things are not even remotely related!

Well if thats your attitude your never getting an invite to one of my sexy parties!

But in all seriousness the thing that disgusts me is the intellectual snobbery involved in censorship. To take an example from American Psycho, this as a book has some of the most disturbing horrific murders and acts of cruelty available in any media. It makes Hostel look like Snow White, it is even more damaging in a way because it happens in your imagination, it occurs in your skull!

Yet this is on my universities syllabus we disect the book in the way Patrick Bateman discects his victims(or does he?) It is regarded as a masterwork gaining critical acclaim, however Saw which is less violent is regarded as trash for the sub intelligent masses
the difference being that no one could ever use a book as a catalyst for anything violent (Mein Kampf, Catcher in the Rye) No ones mind has ever been changed by literature (The Communist Manifesto and nothing scandalous and sick has ever been written (100 days of Sodom, Lolita)

The ultimate reflection of this intellectual snobbery was in 1993 when Man Bites dog was released, this was a Black and White shot Belgian film with subtitles therefore it must be fine right? Well apart from the gang rape scene the allusions to child murder and many many other heinous acts of murder. Reservoir dogs thankfully came out the same month so the BBFC were too busy fielding all the calls to have that banned than to watch this masterpiece!

So if your intelligent you cant hurt anyone, if your a popcorn muncher you could well be public enemy number one