Everyone has read at least one book in their life that has made them laugh, cry, and just overall fall in love. Everyone has that one movie that they watch over and over because every time you watch it, it gets better. Everyone has those songs that they themselves start jamming to and they just can’t stop screaming the lyrics. Now, imagine that all of those were censored. Every reference to violence, sex, drugs, alcohol, or “unsuitable material”, were all replaced with black lines, beeps, and silence. Censorship as defined by the American Civil Liberties Union, is “The suppression of words, images, or ideas that are “offensive,” which happens whenever some people succeed in imposing their personal political or moral values on others.” This means that whenever a book, song, movie, magazine or any other material is released that contains references to anything that another person finds offensive, all references deemed in appropriate are either cut or covered up. There have been many arguments over the good and the bad sides of censorship.

One of the proposed arguments against all censorship is that it is an infringement on the First Amendment of the Constitution, which states, “The United States Constitution prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering with the right to peaceably assemble.”

There are many groups that are dedicated to the eradication of all censorship. There have been many outreaches to promote the abolition of censoring all materials, like many high schools have introduced special racks in their libraries that contain, “Banned Books” or titles that many groups find to be not age appropriate and should be restricted to purely adult readers.

Many arguments can be made as well for the music industry. Many music artists have become enraged when their songs are aired on the radios, only to have half of their song to be covered up by a superimposed beeping sound or silence. Macklemore and Ryan Louis had a very powerful song that they wrote and performed at the Grammys titled, “Same Love” censored, because it was about homosexuality which upset some of the listeners. The listeners complained to the radio stations, which forced the song to be covered up by other words superimposed into the singer’s mouths. Many foundations have been created to educate people about the effects of censorship as well as the legal aspect pertaining to constitutional merit and rights.

On the flip side, there are also many who believe that censorship is a very crucial aspect to living in a healthy world. Censorship has become very popular with parents, simply for the fact that they do not want their young children to be exposed to the parts of the world that some material references at a young age. Parents have started buying only censored movies and letting children read only approved books. By limiting the intake of images and information on things such as sex, substance abuse, and profanity, they are trying to make sure that their children stay safe from some of the worse parts of our society. One of the other forms of censor ship is the removal of all violence in literature and media. Every kid has seen a toy gun at some point in the store and many of them have toys that promote violence.

Censorship is an everyday aspect of our culture and there truly needs to be a happy medium between the two sides. We don’t need to be telling people what they can or can’t listen to, but there does need to be some censoring of the influences that our culture has on our youth. Overall, censorship is a big deal and there are many sides, but just remember all of your favorite books and imagine them looking all like this, Harry potter rolled out of his cupboard and padded into the kitchen