Putting the Bleep in Blog
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Today I stumbled upon a blog referencing a made up 'article', urging fellow bloggers to refrain from using profanity because,“we have to remember that our blogs are published in cyberspace, and anyone, of any age, can (and may) read them. That means, a seven year old could be reading your blog…. it could be your own child, or grandchild. Have you ever thought that a seven year old may be reading your blog? “
Wow, I certainly hope we don’t all start writing our blogs with seven year olds in mind. There’s millions if not bazillions of patently offensive, grossly inappropriate content out there. In a sea of all the bizarre fetishist pornography, my seven year old running across the f-word is the least of my worries. He has already heard ‘the big seven’ at school and expressed some curiosity about ways in which he might use them. My husband and I have made sure he knows that these words are inappropriate, offensive to others and therefore should only be used in your treehouse with your boy buddies or around great grandma who can’t hear anything that isn’t Italian anyway. Of course, if he learns Italian profanity we might have to amend that last one.
So I say, by all means, block my website from your kids–please. I don’t want to limit what I write because someone else is too complacent or ill-informed to help their child navigate the dangers inherent in such an open forum. As a parent, do you really want a bunch of wierd bloggers essentially babysitting your kids? The internet is no different from any other medium. We don’t produce movies, television, music, art, books, or newspapers exclusively for a general audience. Expecting authors, comedians, commentators, and the like to do it is irresponsible as far as free speech goes and just plain lazy parenting.
WHICH LEADS ME TO MY NEXT POST...
3 comments:
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Uh-oh hot dog - I totally agree – parents have to determine what is “appropriate” based on their families value system as there is a whole universe of issues besides language that may be deemed unsuitable for their children: issues of religion, politics, sexuality, race, fashion, entertainment, environment and on and on. After all, when on the super highway the parents should be doing the driving, not the kiddies.
I agree. That's like the equivalent of them asking you to parent their children for them because they're too buys to do it themselves. I don't hate censorship or anything but you're right that it's your blog and you can write what you want to!!
Lady, it's posts like this that made me glad I went back and read your whole blog.
I don't have kids, but I sure as hell wouldn't let them read my blog until they're adults. That doesn't mean I'm going to stop writing it though. :)