This document discusses the overzealous censorship of media aimed at protecting children. It makes three key points: 1. Censoring media to protect children often results in watering down content to the point where it is no longer enjoyable for other age groups. 2. Hiding or censoring themes and content from children does not actually make them safer and instead hides that content from all audiences. 3. Taking a proactive approach to educate children about sensitive content, rather than hiding it, would allow both children and other audiences to enjoy media content.

1. Do you remember when cartoons
were funny?

2. Do you remember when “hunting wabbits” could
be taken with a laugh and not a scream at the
sight of a gun?

3. Censoring media
for them…
censors it for the
rest of us too

4. “For All Ages”
Today’s society typically interprets this phrase as “intended
for children”, when it actually means its content should
appeal to people of all ages. While many of today’s “For All
Ages” media is severely watered down, now and then a
bright example will appear, only to be snuffed out by today’s
overprotective parent. This occurrence, combined with the
retroactive labeling of older media, is severely damaging the
availability of quality media to both our youth and our
present generation.

5. Being a cartoonist, I have studied many forms of media, discovering
the largely forgotten forms of media deemed too “unsafe” to present
to today’s general viewing public.

6. Rather than lock everything down and hide it from the public,
perhaps it might help to try and understand what it is you’re trying
to hide, maybe you can find a way to help the little ones understand
and avoid your fears.

7. THE MOST
PREVIALIANT PROBLEMS
Overblown censorship for the sake of young viewers
result in watered-down productions
“Hiding” themes and motifs from children does not make
them safer
Parents do not attempt to educate their children
about sensitive material

8. Point One:
Weakening or outright censoring
of video media for the sake of
young viewers robs the fun of it
for other ages

9. Disney’s
Donald Duck
YESTERYEAR
Comically foul-tempered protagonist
Does not refrain from harassing others
for fun
Openly declares his murderous intents
when enraged
Before the time of
“cartoons are for children”

10. Disney’s
Donald Duck
Today
Comically loser protagonist
Often the butt of jokes, comedy derived
From inability to succeed.
Comedic rage has been highly suppressed
Parents feel the older Donald
is “too violent” for children, with no
attempts made to portray the original
version for other audiences

11. Point Two:
“Hiding” things from children
hides them from everybody

12. Transformers
Megatron
A robot that transforms
into a pistol
Many times, this pistol
resembles a realistic
Lugar pistol, in realistic scale
In 1984, this toy could be
bought by children in
toy stores

13. Transformers
Megatron
Transformers fans come in
all ages, but bans on
Megatron toys to “protect
children” make it next to
impossible for older fans
to purchase items due to
their gun form
Such protective measures lead to
outlandish importing charges, many times
Including orange “safety caps”, marring the product,
in the event a child were to carry it around in public,
unaware of the implications

14. Point Three:
If parents took a proactive step
rather than hiding things from
their children, maybe we could
all enjoy things.

15. A shared interest leads to an understanding.
If children can learn to understand the difference between
entertainment and not acceptable behavior, we would not
have to bother with such harsh censorship.

16. A more personal approach can help
avoid such hostile situations towards the
entertainment industry.

17. If things continue the way they have been going,
our children,
our children’s children,
will never be able to share
the joyful experiences we had growing up
as far as media, toys and the like go.

18. So what have we learned?

19. DON’T CENSOR
Help the children understand
the issue!

20. Don’t you want your kids to have fun?
Don’t you want to have fun alongside your children?
Remember that just because it is being done for the children,
that doesn’t mean it works for
the rest of the audience.