Appropriate Media Content...Thoughts? (1 Viewer)

[HumanDichotomy]

Anyone who uses youtube often enough will know that if you select a clip which contains content considered inappropriate for those under a certain age, a page asking you to confirm your birthdate will appear before you're allowed to watch the clip.

So anyway, I was watching the film 'Elizabeth' in parts. The opening scene is of people being burned alive at the stake, screaming. The film also includes several people being stabbed, an execution, a person being bashed to death, bodies strewn on a battlefield, shots of severed heads on stakes and a man being tortured by burning.

All these are things which I would consider highly inappropriate for anyone under a certain age to view. Yet the only section of the whole movie which was flagged was one which contained a very short scene of two people having sex. You couldn't see much, most of it was in darkness, all that was visible was one of the woman's nipples and also the man's bottom.

Now, imo, that's ridiculous. Why are those other, far more graphic and violent things not deemed equally, if not more, inappropriate than a sex scene in which almost nothing is seen?

It's the same in the media. I was reading an article which made a big fuss of the fact that the PM said 'fuck' a few times in a meeting, in front of three women (shock horror!) and wouldn't apologise, yet almost nothing is made of the fact that almost everyday, on the news, there are reports of people being murdered, killed in war, dying in car accidents etc.

Of course, I think that kids, and other people who might be offended or whatever should be protected from bad language and/or sexual content, if it is excessive. However, what I object to is the fact that violence just doesn't seem to be on the same level.

What do people think about this, and other choices made about media content?

 

[Sprangler]

I don't think violence is really on the same level as bad language, it's about "What's the chance a kid is going to imitate this?". If a kid sees Die Hard - no doubt he/she is going to repeat the "Yippie Kai Yay motherfucker" line, cause it's cool as hell. Is the kid going to want to get a gun and kill terrorists? I have no idea, there have probably been too many studies to count on this subject, and it's not really a yes/no answer.

When you're talking about media it's different. A story about a suicide bombing by a Palestinian terrorist in Israel or any Western country which kills numerous innocent civilians may or may not make a child want to emulate/repeat it, depending on the context the kid sees it in, if the kid has Muslim parents and they say that the terrorist was a glorious freedom fighter and killing civilians is fine - then there's a good chance of it.

 

[chelsea girl]

None of those things should be "censored" anyway (I use the term loosely because really it's just a pointless exercise in political correctness and has no real effect on whether or not minors will be able to view things.)

 

[ashie0]

i find it highly amusing that in a society where there is so much violence people are vehemently opposed to pornography, etc. sex is not the enemy.

 

[absorber]

We've become so desensitised to violence that these days it doesn't matter; it's the norm, society lives with it, that's cool. I think to a degree it's true that we live in an hypocrisy. But yeah, violence these days just doesn't match obscenity in other forms imo.

 

[chelsea girl]

i find it highly amusing that in a society where there is so much violence people are vehemently opposed to pornography, etc. sex is not the enemy.

Yes, it's pathetically telling that so many movies are banned or cause a great uproar for portraying sex (Nine Songs, anyone?) yet the mainstream garbage that Hollywood churns out for the masses month after month is filled with gore and violence (I personally have no problem with either of those, but the situation is somewhat amusing in its absurdity.)

 

[HumanDichotomy]

i find it highly amusing that in a society where there is so much violence people are vehemently opposed to pornography, etc. Sex is not the enemy.

Exactly.

 

[jb_nc]

So anyway, I was watching the film 'Elizabeth' in parts.

 

[HumanDichotomy]

So anyway, I was watching the film 'Elizabeth' in parts.

You too? No way. Lol.

 

[Golda Meir]

sex is the enemy. promiscuity is the lowest form a person can reach. it is the height of a lack of self worth, and the pit of despair of a histrionic madwoman. noone likes a slut, but everyone loves a GI Joe.

god bless

 

[HumanDichotomy]

sex is the enemy. promiscuity is the lowest form a person can reach. it is the height of a lack of self worth, and the pit of despair of a histrionic madwoman.

So it's worse than killing a fellow human being in cold blood?

 

[Golda Meir]

loose vaginaed women are the most despised in society. tell me comrade, what angers you more, honestly, of the following scenarios:?
yr gf just cheated on you
or
some guy shot someone in kosovo

i thought as much. there are very few figureheads in society that ranker lower than the whore. the soldier is not one of them.

 

[HumanDichotomy]

Hmm...well that is a hard one...I would have to say the GF option...

But the only reason I would care about the GF thing more is because it affects me personally...

If, however, there were two news items and one was about a guy who cheated on his GF in Kosovo and the other about a guy who killed someone in Kosovo, I would definitely be more disturbed about the killing.

Equally, if my GF cheated on me, I would care less about that than if she killed someone and stayed with me.

 

[quik.]

Short of appropriately timed tv times (ie don't put graphic violence on instead of 8am cartoons) I think it should fall on the parents to control what their kids do and do not come into contact with.

If they leave their children on the unsupervised and they start watching hot tranny porn or saw 2, they need better parenting not better censorship.

 

[Random_dude]

Short of appropriately timed tv times (ie don't put graphic violence on instead of 8am cartoons) I think it should fall on the parents to control what their kids do and do not come into contact with.

If they leave their children on the unsupervised and they start watching hot tranny porn or saw 2, they need better parenting not better censorship.

so true. so very, very true....

 

[HumanDichotomy]

Short of appropriately timed tv times (ie don't put graphic violence on instead of 8am cartoons) I think it should fall on the parents to control what their kids do and do not come into contact with.

If they leave their children on the unsupervised and they start watching hot tranny porn or saw 2, they need better parenting not better censorship.

Yeah, I completely agree. That's my whole point. Why should we as a society collectively decide what we condemn within media? It should be up to the individual families to decide what they consider appropriate, not the wider community.

 

[absorber]

Yeah, I completely agree. That's my whole point. Why should we as a society collectively decide what we condemn within media? It should be up to the individual families to decide what they consider appropriate, not the wider community.

Humans are conformists by nature, parents wishing to be 'responsible' are going to look at what the norm is, because they want to raise normal children.

 

[Golda Meir]

Hmm...well that is a hard one...I would have to say the GF option...

But the only reason I would care about the GF thing more is because it affects me personally...

If, however, there were two news items and one was about a guy who cheated on his GF in Kosovo and the other about a guy who killed someone in Kosovo, I would definitely be more disturbed about the killing.

Equally, if my GF cheated on me, I would care less about that than if she killed someone and stayed with me.

You're clearly a morally repugnant person, and we can't take your opinions on censorship seriously.

 

[HumanDichotomy]

How on earth is it morally repugnant not to be concerned about someone I know killing another over someone I know sleeping around?

'Oh...I'm ok with you shooting Uncle Bob, he was a bit too promiscuous for my liking, just as long as you didn't cheat on me with him first.'

We are talking of the *taking of another human being's life*. Imo, to not condemn this above consensual sex between two people (even if it is extra-marital) is much more morally reprehensible.

 

[HumanDichotomy]

Humans are conformists by nature, parents wishing to be 'responsible' are going to look at what the norm is, because they want to raise normal children.

Yeah fair enough. So maybe there needs to be a change in what's considered the norm.