The Effects Of Internet Censorship On Children

According to Huesmann Rowell L., "One of the notable changes in our social environment in the 20th and 21st centuries has been the saturation of our culture and daily lives by the mass media. In this new environment radio, television, movies, videos, video games, cell phones, and computer networks have assumed central roles in our children’s daily lives. For better or worse the mass media are having an enormous impact on our children’s values, beliefs, and behaviors. Unfortunately, the consequences of one particular common element of the electronic mass media has a particularly detrimental effect on children’s well being. Research evidence has accumulated over the past half-century that exposure to violence on television, movies, and most recently in video games increases the risk of violent behavior on the viewer’s part just as growing up in an environment filled with real violence increases the risk of

The Internets filled with dangerous information, that children should never have the freedom to get access to. Children are more vulnerable to the effects of ideas, imaging, and videos. parents should also take the matter into their own hands when it comes to censoring what their child's view. Although some would say censorship violates their basic rights to free speech and their freedom, censorship helps protect children from exposure to graphic content, but parents must also do their part in this issue.

Imagine a place where you have access to anything and everything one could want. Some would say that is only existent in a utopia, and some would say that describes the Internet. Many adults go on to the net and access pornographic material that would be unsuitable for children. This is called cyberporn. The controversy lies in the fact that children are accessing these materials also. Government, activist groups, and concerned parents are fighting to regulate obscene material found over the Internet to protect children. The first amendment is the only thing protecting adults from losing their rights to obtain pornographic or indecent material on the net. Under the first amendment the government must not regulate cyberporn. Online sex

While elementary and middle schools have obvious needs for restrictions, Internet access at the high school level isn't as black and white. High school students are sensitive to their given rights, yet are officially minors under the law; teenagers are ever nearing adulthood, but are sometimes viewed as immature. So, high school administrators are challenged with designing an Internet policy that meets the educational needs of the students and the moral demands of society. Although software is being designed to "censor" the content of the Internet, student trust and responsibility might be a more reasonable route.

Arguments concerning social media’s affect on children often being with television. Experts on the other side of the argument claim that television leaves a negative effect on children that leads to obesity and violent behaviors. Manfred Spitzer writes “After 6 months, children in the intervention school had a lower BMI and behaved less violently during break times…” (pg. 1388). Not only are the effects written by Spitzer possible but experts also argue that children may become less sensitive to the pain and suffering of others. Children may be more fearful of the world around them and they may be more likely to behave in aggressive or harmful ways towards others. The violence exposed to children through media doesn’t cease to exist with only television. Video games are often blamed for violence crimes in children and youth as well. Craig A. Anderson, a psychologist along with others concluded in a 2010 review of video game violence showed that “evidence strongly suggest that exposure to violent video games is a causal risk factor for increased aggressive behavior, aggressive cognition, and aggressive affect and for decreased empathy and prosocial behavior.”

One of the many observed effects of social media is the violent tendencies that seem to become more common in the upcoming generations. Many video games and movies show a lot of violence and these things can sometimes make an impression on the children. Even though there are many studies on media violence on children, there are really no clear answers. But different television, film, video games, etc. have definitely raised the level of violence in children and it continues to rise. Murray, a developmental psychologist, says even though that television and film are just as violent but video games are more worrisome in that it requires the player to be heavily involved in the game, and through repetition

Sexual content on a computer like pornagraphy can be a problem like in the U.S. Internet Censorship Battle. The laws prohibit children of being exposed to pornagraphy which can be easy to be seen online. The government decided to pass the Child Pornagraphy Prevention Act to protect children from vulgar exposure(Fridell 45-46). The internet is open to everyone, which can be a problem for children seeing explicit content and sexual content which can be frightening to the child or their

There has been much debate about the commonwealth’s and the Australian communications and media authority’s campaign to give the Internet censorship that is not required. For reasons such as freedom to talk about ideas, to talking to people around the world. In china there are estimated to be around 30 thousand police surfing the web, covering up websites the government does not want you looking up. Things such as just searching up “human rights” will bring you to a page that says you cannot access, and this is mainly the cause of communism.

It is agreeable that there are some correlation between teenagers playing video games and how it affects the youth mentally. Heavy consumption of violence video games does indeed stimulate a change reaction in the brain waves, but there is no hard evidence stating that those changes causes teenagers to act aggressively and violently. On the contrary, it is a popular beliefs that violence video games does indeed causes teenagers to displayed unpleasant behaviors and actions because that is what they learned and observed from the games. Therefore, parents should limit and regulate the amount of time their teenagers are playing violence video games so that they can protect their children from negative behaviors.

Monkey see, monkey do, a simple phrase relevant to today’s society. Those in society that simply do not know any better, such as children, are inclined to imitate what they see being done. Without censorship daily television shows are increasingly exhibiting more violence, foul language and sexuality to susceptible youth. Due to lack of censorship, explicit music lyrics and inappropriate images on music videos are being introduced to impressionable children. There is a lack of control on the internet leading to internet addiction and forces vulnerable adolescents to face cyber bullying. In a variety of mediums not enough censorship is used, which influences impressionable youth to think and behave negatively.

Internet has become more and more unrestricted. Anyone can go on the internet with almost any website they please to access sexual media or to communicate with others with the intention of all kinds of acts. A lot of children today become a victim of sex trafficking and pornography addicted. Internet is getting more and more easy to accessible and that is why we need internet censorship to protect a children and people with less knowledge of the internet to have a limitation on the internet access. Internet censorship help limit a children to access the vast of information on the internet to keep them safe from being a victim of sex trafficking and pornography. Internet censorship provide a protection against inappropriate contents and illegal website to people with less knowledge of the internet. Censorship also help protecting a children from violence act and harmful interaction. A lot of children’s performance suffer more than improve by the internet. Increased internet censorship will improve security for browsing the internet.

The Internet is a global network of vast information. With a few clicks, an individual can have access to up to 200 million web-sites filled with educational and recreational information. The Internet is not regulated in anyway (Carnegie Library 1). It is accessible throughout the entire world from the North to the South, to the early morning sunrise and dark sunsets. Different ethnicity and backgrounds come together linked upon this network resembling a connection of one body in unity. Sadly, issues arise creating concern for users, focusing particularly on minors. Pornography is one of the inappropriate materials on the Internet for minors. This material is harmful to young impressionable minds. Pornography is tearing and

Risky behavior by children and young adults can include violence against others or lack of remorse for consequences. The type of faulty thinking creates stressors in children which can lead to the onset of many symptoms. Children who partake in video game violence are more likely to have increased feelings of hostility, decreased emotional response to the portrayal of violence, and injury that lead to violent behavior through imitation. A new study employing state-of-the-art brain-scanning technology says that violent video games can cause an individual to become violent. Researchers at the Indiana University School of Medicine say that brain scans of kids who played a violent video game showed an increase in emotional arousal and a corresponding decrease of activity in brain areas involved in self-control, inhibition, and attention. In short, when playing a violent game, an individual’s brain processes the game playing as “fictional”, but later can project some of the unknown effects as violence or aggression.

Findings supporting these claims also show that with an increase in violence comes other negative health risks such as an increased likelihood of substance abuse, sexual activity, and obesity(Denniston, Swahn, Feldman, and Romero). Media use, and subsequent exposure to violent content is extremely prevalent among 8 to 18 year old children who spend, on average, 7.4 hours a day using media or computers and 80% of teens have some type of gaming console(Denniston, Swahn, Feldman, and Romero) These claims and the amount of media children are exposed to were concerning enough that the American Academy of Pediatrics started making advisory statements about violent video games and media being health risks for children in 2001. (Hall, Day, and Hall) Since then the link between violent games and violent behavior in youths has been researched across many “population groups”(Denniston, Swahn, Feldman, and Romero). The second theory revolves around any positive effects that might be gained from playing these games (Hall, Day, and Hall). Stating that these may offer “safe” outlets for negative emotions and thusly allowing players to be more emotionally balanced. (Hall, Day, and Hall)

Over the years, the popularity of computer and video games has grown. Specifically violent video games make up more than 50 % of the top selling games. These games include violent themes that involve guns, crime, blood, and gore. There is an ongoing belief that these types of games are to blame for the many acts of violence in society and have encouraged America’s youth to act out in aggression. Several organizations, such as the PTC (Parents Television Council) have moved to discourage the development of violent games while also pushing for stronger regulations when purchasing such games. There is also debate among parents and concerns on how games can negatively influence their children. So is there a direct link between video games and violence? The truth is video games do not encourage violence in society based on several factors which include scientific studies, statistics on crime, and prevention measures adopted by game publishers.