Videogame Censorship

Frank

AP English IV вЂ" 2nd period

27 January 2008

Video Game Censorship

From the blurred images on TV to the beeped out words on the radio, censorship can be seen everywhere. It can be defined as the act or practice of suppressing material deemed objectionable on moral, political, military, or other grounds. Censorship has been around for decades and has been done by various groups, such as the government, religious groups, corporations, or the mass media. Censorship is also seen in every country and each of them may have its own guidelines in regards to censorship. There are multiple reasons for censoring, such as to prevent state or government secrets from being leaked, to prevent falsification of scientific research, and many others. While many believe that censorship is necessary for the good of the people, other feel that censorship is wrong and that it restricts people’s freedom of speech and expression. Everything that undergoes a form of censorship falls into a certain category of censorship.

There are multiple types of censorship, each belonging to a different category: moral censorship, military censorship, political censorship, religious censorship, and corporate censorship. Moral censorship is censorship in regards to the questioning of morality. Thousands of things fall under moral censorship such as questionable works of art, pornography, graphic violence, drug use, explicit language, and others. Moral censorship is one of the most common types of censorship (and one of the most debatable) seen in the world today. Another type of censorship is military censorship, which is censoring in order to keep military intelligence and tactics confidential, and out of enemy hands. An example of military censorship would be preventing the press from releasing certain types of media coverage to the public. This type of censorship is considered acceptable by the majority of the people because it involves the security of the nation. Without military censorship, the enemy could easily obtain valuable information needed to gain the advantage. Political censorship is another type that involves retaining confidential or secret information from the citizens. This type of censoring is not necessarily used to protect the nation from foreign enemies, but to protect the government domestically. The government uses this type of censorship to prevent the people from revolting against it. Although it can also be used to protect the nation from the enemy, since the enemy can find an opening to attack the nation if the citizens harbor any hatred for the government. As a result of all this, the government does not openly support political censorship (to prevent arousing suspicion among the people), but endorses it in private. An influential type of censorship is religious censorship, which involves the removal of material that is considered objectionable to a certain faith. In this type of censorship, the dominant religions of the country tend to control what type of material is removed. For the most part, the recessive religions of the country do not have a voice in religious censorship. This type of censorship is common in the Middle East, where there is a lot of religious strife. The last type of censorship is corporate censorship. Corporate censorship involves the prevention of publishing material that produces a negative image for a corporation or its business partners. Almost every type of subject in the world has at least one thing that has been censored, which falls into one of the above-mentioned categories

Censorship is seen everywhere; in the media (TV, music, internet), in education, in books. Censorship has spread to just about every subject that a person can think of. There a multiple ways that things can be censored. An example would be the prevention of the releasing of a controversial book. The book may contain material that exposes the government, and as a result, the government does not allow the book to be released to the public. Another example would be the censoring of vulgar language in music, which is done by replacing the word with a substitute word or a sound. In education, textbooks can have their content rewritten or deleted in order to prevent the youth from being exposed to certain ideologies or concepts. It can be seen that censorship has spread to many areas and is done in different ways by either the government or certain organizations. Although there is no doubt that certain things must be censored for the protection of the nation and its people, many believe that organizations and the government should not decide what needs to be censored. Instead, the majority of citizens prefer the power of censorship to be in the hands of the people, that they must decide what does or does not need to be censored.

For the past few years, censorship has mainly been seen in entertainment, from movies to music. Lately, there has been a movement by some people to censor and regulate another form of entertainment вЂ" video games. Since the introduction of modern video games, there has been controversy regarding the content of videogames. Some claim that video games contain too many controversial concepts and ideas. The advocates of censorship suggest that the crime and violence in video games have caused the youth to become violent, and that teen crime ratings have risen as a result. They also claim that video games (when played by a child) hinder a player’s social and psychological development. These players supposedly isolate themselves from others, become less social, and have problems communicating with other people. It is said that these children also suffer psychologically, having less control over themselves, which causes them to become aggressive in nature. The advocates of censorship also claim that violent video games are “murder simulators”, that teach players how to kill. As a result of these reasons, people believe that videogames should have their content censored (or completely removed). This information is not sufficient enough to censor videogames, though. The majority of what the advocates of censorship claim are inconclusive or completely inaccurate. Also, the same content that is seen in video games is seen in all other forms of entertainment. The counter-arguments that have been provided by the opponents of censorship, cancel out almost all of what the advocates (of censorship) say. Also, there are many solutions to the problems that people have with video games, that don’t involve censoring them. As a result, video games should not have to be censored.

One of the main arguments of the advocates of censorship is that videogames (specifically violent

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