Censorship in Net, Games and Social Media
- Elif Yokuş
- Oct 9, 2024
- 3 min read
While the number of internet sites, games and social media presented to people have increased enormously recently, how safe and healthy it is to use all of them uncensored? Billiani defines the term “censorship” as “…carrying heavy significance and usually refers to blatant forms of repression.” (2014: 3). In this case, should censorship exist? Firstly, although the internet is very valuable in terms of accessing information, it affects people, especially children, with advertisements that encourage smoking or alcohol addiction, and child pornography. “Children’s natural curiosity may lead them to look at unsuitable Web sites. One of the main areas of concern is pornography: the sex industry has become one of the most successful to emigrate to the Internet.” (Allbon & William, 2002: 30). In conjunction with Allbon and Williams, it can be remarked that children might look at these sites about smoking and alcohol. Therefore, these children may feel smoking and drinking alcohol can increase their self-confidence. Hereby, this can cause addiction. Secondly, though games are one of the first things that come to mind when thinking about having fun, violent games might seriously harm children's health. It is possible that damage in health correlates with the games played by people. In an article, it is said that “Video games result in an increase in physiological arousal.” (Kirsh, 2002: 383). According to Kirsh, we can say that children who play violent games tend to be more aggressive and self-harming. In addition, it is clear that violent games seriously harm the mental health of children. For example, with the Blue Whale, Momo, Mariam and many other games, many children’s psychology has been damaged, and even suicide cases have been seen. Violent games which were mentioned before should be eliminated before they are released, and if they cannot be eliminated, they should be censored as soon as possible for health of children. Moreover, , these games cause trauma for children. Unfortunately, it is very difficult for a traumatized children to heal, therefore; these games affect the whole life of a human, maybe a generation. Thirdly, even though social media may seem fun when viewed, it causes serious psychological disorders by judging people based on their appearance. Tai-Ye Wu states that “…while social anxiety is focused on an individual’s affective struggle and self-censorship emphasizes cognitive suppression, they both describe a person’s discomfort provoked by either actual or anticipated social disapproval.” (2021: 921). Scenes that arouse anxiety on social media such as violence, death and torture should be censored as well. These scenes not only increase people’s anxiety but also incite people to violence. Consequently, if people want the technological environment to be useful to human beings, some things should be censored. This is very important to protect people's mental and physical health; otherwise, it is inevitable that these resources provided to people will be dangerous.
References
Allbon, E., & Williams, P. (2002). Nasties in the net: Children and censorship on the web. New Library World, 103(1173-1174), 30-38.
Billiani, F. (2014). Modes of censorship: National contexts and diverse media. St. Jerome Publishing.
Kirsh, S. J. (2002). The effects of violent video games on adolescents: The overlooked influence of development. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 8(4), 377-389. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1359-1789(02)00056-3
Wu, T.-Y. (2021). Proactive opinion expression avoidance about same-sex marriage on social media: Acceptance, reactance, and self-censorship. Taylor & Francis Online, 24(6), 918-942. https://doi.org/10.1080/15205436.2021.1905848
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