Censoring movies and video games

[Astaroth]

Everyone knows about censorship in China, North Korea or Saudi Arabia. However, even in modern democracies censorship is not unheard of. Several video games have been banned in many European countries ("Manhunt" being one example) and some countries are quite well-known for their censoring of movies and games, such as Germany and Australia.

Several reasons are given for why some movies and video games are censored or prohibited altogether, a major one being that the 'youth needs to be protected'. Supporters of said censorship also often claim that it would be morally questionable to allow depictions of cruel violence and senseless killing to be distributed.

However, I'm not sure if I can agree with that. To begin with, why should something be banned that doesn't harm anyone? Why should the state interfere when its adult citizens want to watch movies or play games? Sure, the youth needs to be "protected" to a certain degree, but that's what age restrictions are for. Therefore, I don't think that this is a sufficient reason for the state to treat its citizens like infants who cannot decide what's good for themselves.

Now of course one could say that this is a slippery slope because there could be video games or movies that glorify crimes and the likes, but then again that already happens. There are plenty of games that depict murder and killing in such a manner.

Thoughts? Should governments ban movies and video games for being too cruel?

[Kurtz]

Now of course one could say that this is a slippery slope because there could be video games or movies that glorify crimes and the likes, but then again that already happens. There are plenty of games that depict murder and killing in such a manner.

They same could be said about censoring film and video games. If you censor something because you don't like it, where does it end?

[Sphere]

The Supreme Court just heard an interesting video game censorship case from California. Here's the oral arguments if you are interested

I have a feeling that California is going to lose the case as Scalia seems to be against them, though the more socially conservative justices (Roberts, Alito) seem to be siding with California.

[webMaster412160]

I agree they are doing this, the youth isn't affected by it in a positive way.

[Norwegian_viking]

I agree they are doing this, the youth isn't affected by it in a positive way.

i can find more violent stuff on the news.

and serisly say one real reason why seeing blood or a swastika is bad? because it makes you violent?

here i have a good reason
Part 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWr4htYp9dM
Part 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZ7co...eature=related
Part 3:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLBx9...eature=related


(but if you dont want to spend 30 min to watch them all, i sugest you watch the last one)


edit: also the video are hillarious

[Viking Prince]

i can find more violent stuff on the news.

and serisly say one real reason why seeing blood or a swastika is bad? because it makes you violent?

here i have a good reason
Part 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWr4htYp9dM
Part 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZ7co...eature=related
Part 3:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLBx9...eature=related


(but if you dont want to spend 30 min to watch them all, i sugest you watch the last one)


edit: also the video are hillarious

How about if you just give us your reason rather than asking us to spend 30 minutes of our time watching youtube? I would like to know your thoughts and I would be willing to take the time to read them.

Also -- claiming that worse is available is not really a good arguement. It is akin to stating that other people did it, so why am I being punished?

[Treize]

In New Kids Turbo they show penis.

[MathiasOfAthens]

Games and movies have age ratings to begin with. Censoring film and games for adults is rather stupid though.

[sabaku_no_gaara]

Games and movies have age ratings to begin with. Censoring film and games for adults is rather stupid though.

Those are ignored, Across the street lives a single mother her 9 year old son comes here after school untill she can come pick him up after work, the kidd is 9 years old, do you know what games he plays?

Assasin's creed II
Killzone 2
all the Call of Duty games

His mother simply states: I don't know what all those games are and they don't interest me, it's just silly games. (And this is a woman who is only 33 years old she's still a young woman, heck she's only 3 years older than me)

And his dad doesn't care either, in fact his dad buys him all those 18+ games when he's over there in the weekend,

Age ratings are usually ignored

[SinerAthin]

Trying to shove it away is pointless.

You should rather learn to live with it instead.

[Blaze86420]

No need for censorship, parents just need to be more responsible. My brother has been playing call of duty since he was 6, my 4 years old cousin plays it as well. This isn't helping with our stereotype.

[thelionheart]

I don't believe in censoring. I believe that the government through schools and the parents should be responsible for teaching children to separate right from wrong. Law would then take care of any anomalies!!

[Cúchulainn]

Censorship is the most hypocritical method of the "moralists".

"This" thing is wrong, be it a video game yet violent or sexually explicit (which are the justified reasons to censor in their contorted view) movies, music or tv shows are tolerated to a much greater degree.

However that is just religious moralists.

The others just use censorship as limitation, but I'm sorry you can never justify to me why a limitation of knowledge is for my benefit, I will decide that not you. Never you.

Take the wikileaks scandal.
Media at large's mantra was "it was worse for wikileaks to share this information about U.S activities than for the U.S to do these activities".

[Salvatorel]

Today we have very advanced internet file sharing systems be it various file hosting servers or P2P systems,yes, in many countries they are semi legal/illegal,but,due to lack of effective measures to control internet,they are easily accessible and widely used and as far as we go they often host everything,be it just another violent video game that has got banned few days ago or a simulator of a pedophile Catholic priest and with breaking news of banning just another controversial game or movie and their wide availability in the internet in the end censorship actually gives popularity boost to censored media and at same time becomes a justifiable reason to pirate something.

[Jingles]

Censoring video games to "protect" people is ridiculous. It's using that same logic that the Soviet Union used to censor stuff - to "protect" the people.

[Enemy of the State]

Won't somebody please think of the children?!

[Viking Prince]

Should governments ban movies and video games for being too cruel?

Won't somebody please think of the children?!

Of course we do. The problem though does not go away by ignoring it. People want and will demand that their children be protected. We do this usually with regulations setting age limits to purchase adult oriented goods (tobacco, booze, porn, etc.) But we also outright ban some goods and activities such as child porn using what would appear to be real children. Even computer created children are usually not allowed. There was a recent incident of a book on Amazon that resulted an arrest for being a 'how to do' manual.

Author of pedophile manual arrested - Crime Scene KC

So there are limits to everything.

[Claudius Gothicus]

Reckless speech is not the same as free-speech.

While most video games and other media expressions are and should stay free for all many others such as the ''pedophile manual'' are directly aimed at causing not only uproar but also direct harm, those should be dealt with on a case by case basis. The rest should be freely distributed.

[Ahlerich]

while i was annoyed in germany when games were "censored" by removing blood or mutilation i must say it kills some flavor of games but is not really a problem right? for those that say parents should be responsible - well parents stilla re responsible but reality shows that many parents are irresponsible

[Thema'zandaar]

Unlimited freedom will lead to chaos. Unlimited restrictions will lead to stagnation. It's important to find the middle ground.

The original concept of freedom was not so people (whether they are children or adults) can indulge in their sadistic or pervert desires such as watching gorey mutilations and the like. It was so that people can express their thoughts and ideas, so they can contribute to the enrichment and improvement of the society.

Anyone who wants to watch Jason or Freddy abusing corpses should be seeing a doctor. I don't believe it is healthy to have such desires and it could take a split second to transform from fiction into reality. As for the argument that law should take care of the rest, the Justice will not be able to give back the victim's sense of security or in the worse case, the victim's life. Prevent the horror before it can be perpetrated.

By the way, "adults" are not always the mature individuals we expect them to be. The Adult of nowadays has been relegated to a simple number in legal documents. I've seen children more mature than some "adults". So the argument that adults should be given unrestricted access to everything won't fly with me. Adults are just as impressionable as children and some have lesser capacity to be morally sound than the average eight-year-old.

That's not to say that all media should be banned and we shouldn't explore a topic at all. But it is the responsibility of movie and game developers to NOT glorify the villainous acts performed in their media. And it IS the government's duty to hold developers accountable. Some people seem to think government should not interfere in matters - well they should, they are the government, the root of this word is to govern (people) - it is the purpose of their existence and the reason we pay taxes.