Censorship is Ignorance

From reading the two articles I would have to agree with the logic of the first one. Why do we believe that sheltering people is doing them good? Especially children? Everyone for some reason believes that people are useless and stupid until they reach adulthood and it really annoys me. Children absorb everything around them. We cannot hide these things from them forever. If a kid sees people shooting each other on television, then yeah they probably might come away from it with negative connotations. If a child asks their parent about why people were shooting at each other, then that parent should take the opportunity to explain to them what violence is, rather than getting pissed off and asking them if the babysitter was letting them watch a bad television show. The second reading stated that "findings of the earlier report documented other areas in which television was having an impact, particularly on perceptions of reality, social relationships, health and education." Media is a form (arguably not the healthiest form) of education, and we as a technologically advanced society must recognize that. The first source mentions that television can introduce children to a wide array of controversial issues such as "abortion, teen pregnancy, sex education, contraception, homosexuality, premarital sex, nontraditional families, drug use, the Equal Rights Amendment, feminism, national defense, communism, prayer in public school, the teaching of evolution, etc." I'd just like to point out that these things do in fact exist in the world in which we live. The children in this world live among these things.

 I can understand why it is common to try to protect the innocent from the world but it won't make them stronger. If a parent does not want their child to watch it then they don't need to let them watch it. But they have to be aware that their kid will most not likely become a crazy gunman from watching a movie with guns, and that they could easily explain it to them. What do we consider the proper age to warn the youth about the dangers among the world? When do we decide the time is apt to take away their innocence? Censorship is manipulation. It is ignorance. We cannot shelter ourselves to the point where we are convinced that these things don't exist. Taking if off of the television doesn't mean those things are not still happening. (sorry this was more of a rant than it was a blog).