Why do parents censor stuff from kids?

[cate]

It's seemingly almost instinctive for parents to guard their kids from more mature stuff, such as: nudity, violence, un-fun facts (drugs, racism, safety concerns at night), etc.
Seriously, why?

You could say it'd scarr them, but I'm not sure that'd be the case. For example a couple of years ago I was searching for and was viewing very violent gore (decapitation, executions, people being squashed, suicide.) It was disturbing and induced some small shock but I soon got over it which is good, because it means I'm mentally stronger; can endure more uncomfortable stuff without reaching a sort of breaking point.

And say a kid played some teen game where they were shooting and cussing at people (in the game,) in what ways would that be negative? "Monkey see, monkey do" mentality I think wouldn't apply because the kids would already have a sense of what's good and bad. I think this because I'm pretty sure that just naturally kids even at young ages have a good, usually very strong sense of what's fair, right, good, and bad.
So, the kid would view the content, decide it's bad but continue to enjoy the content as it's entertaining.

And how would anything be "guaranteed" to cause them to have a twisted view of reality/bad mindset/ideology from their exposure to ugly stuff? I'd imagine that sort of stuff comes much more from your personality and life growing up (abusive parents, filthy environment, loud surroundings, boring atmosphere, no friends...), so the way I see it, a potential hippy pacifist when a kid would be perfectly fine from knowing/being exposed to ugly material.
And likewise a soon-to-be psychopathic murderer could just be some ordinary kid living the life with plenty of good friends and many great board games.

tl;dr:
So, why do people think that they should censor heaps of stuff from kids? Besides, it'd be natural to let them see the world without a parental filter, and interpret it in their own way, rather than be brainwashed to believe stuff parents and teachers tell them.


*I am curious about this because I really dislike censorship and demeaning of people. Kids are actually surprisingly smart even where very young, and aren't ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ants. They're humans, capable of thinking intelligently just like more mature teens/adults/elders.

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TL;DR.

[it's love]

Psychology is complicated as ♥♥♥♥. You simplify everything and draw your own conclusions without any real education on it (a likely assumption, you can correct me if it's not true). Most parents aren't educated in it either, and so they draw their own conclusions that differ from yours, so there's your answer.

[tmwfte]

Publicado originalmente por cate:

For example a couple of years ago I was searching for and was viewing very violent gore (decapitation, executions, people being squashed, suicide.) It was disturbing and induced some small shock but I soon got over it which is good, because it means I'm mentally stronger; can endure more uncomfortable stuff without reaching a sort of breaking point.

Becoming desensitized to violence is not a good thing and is one of the signs of sociopathy. Please see a psychiatrist, because this isn't healthy.

[cate]

Publicado originalmente por Crazed Rabbit:

Psychology is complicated as ♥♥♥♥. You simplify everything and draw your own conclusions without any real education on it (a likely assumption, you can correct me if it's not true). Most parents aren't educated in it either, and so they draw their own conclusions that differ from yours, so there's your answer.

That's not an answer; I want to find out why literally just about everyone thinks kids should be censored from just about everything "ugly".
Yes people aren't psychologists, so they follow the crowd and do the most popular, socially acceptable thing: censor content from kids. Some would do this more-so than others probably because they themselves were heavily censored and therefore think it's good to censor. But whatever, that's not what I'm wondering about.
Yes, I'm no psychologist. Yet I can state my theories and assumptions as to why things are thanks to experience and critical thinking. And so, I created this thread to find out other people's thoughts on this so I can either consider some argument(s) I haven't thought of before, or strengthen my idea.

Publicado originalmente por tiny E:

Can I ask how old the OP is?

Just 16. But why's that matter; can't someone young not ask questions? Can't they think for themselves, create their own viewpoint on something, and then question it and get people to give "feedback" on it, so that they can ultimately have a much better view/understanding of this topic?

[GhostyOsty]

Because it's basic psychology. It's like saying, "yeah, lets show my 3 year old blood and gore because it's fine."
No you ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ idiot.

[cate]

Publicado originalmente por GhostyOsty:

Because it's basic psychology. It's like saying, "yeah, lets show my 3 year old blood and gore because it's fine."
No you ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ idiot.

Yeah that's what everyone says but you're not explaining why that's a good assumption

[Cydramech]

I'd argue with any parent all day that their kids should be exposed to any realistic violence if they asked me for advice, on the basis that exposure to something actually does reduce the likelihood to commit what is being exposed, but at the end of the day it's no one's business but their own since the kid is the responsibility of its parents or guardians.

[Irene ❤]

It's not about the kids, it's about the parents. They believe their child is an angel and any hard truth might stress them. They are not ready to teach their child the naughty things. : P Life goes on and they will eventually learn it anyway.

[Privette]

Publicado originalmente por tmwfte:

Publicado originalmente por cate:

For example a couple of years ago I was searching for and was viewing very violent gore (decapitation, executions, people being squashed, suicide.) It was disturbing and induced some small shock but I soon got over it which is good, because it means I'm mentally stronger; can endure more uncomfortable stuff without reaching a sort of breaking point.

Becoming desensitized to violence is not a good thing and is one of the signs of sociopathy. Please see a psychiatrist, because this isn't healthy.

OP here's your answer

[AD]

Publicado originalmente por cate:

Publicado originalmente por GhostyOsty:

Because it's basic psychology. It's like saying, "yeah, lets show my 3 year old blood and gore because it's fine."
No you ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ idiot.

Yeah that's what everyone says but you're not explaining why that's a good assumption

Probably because young kids don't react in a good way to blood and gore and many parents does this thing where they actually care for the well being of their child. So they don't want their child exposed to things they can't handle, because they don't want their kids to have nghtmares or become shocked or scarred by it. Which is fine (unless taken too far), the human brain matures over time and throwing everything at it when it is undeveloped might not be a good idea.

[GhostyOsty]

Publicado originalmente por cate:

Publicado originalmente por GhostyOsty:

Because it's basic psychology. It's like saying, "yeah, lets show my 3 year old blood and gore because it's fine."
No you ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ idiot.

Yeah that's what everyone says but you're not explaining why that's a good assumption

It's a good example because stuff like that can corrupt a child's mind. Things like abuse, divorce and a child whiteness the process of it is not healthy. A growth of a Child's brain is extremely delicate.

[Soceris]

When you are young you can easily develop bad habits if you see something of that type, you can develop things such as self-harm, isolating yourself from others.

As a adult you are more wise to the things and can easily accept it more and move on, children can't do that because their brain is still developing which can if it happens create what's called "trauma" memory in your brain.

[Captain Morgan]

I have got a better question; why game developers or game publishers, censor stuff for parents/adults?

[it's love]

Publicado originalmente por cate:

Publicado originalmente por Crazed Rabbit:

Psychology is complicated as ♥♥♥♥. You simplify everything and draw your own conclusions without any real education on it (a likely assumption, you can correct me if it's not true). Most parents aren't educated in it either, and so they draw their own conclusions that differ from yours, so there's your answer.

That's not an answer; I want to find out why literally just about everyone thinks kids should be censored from just about everything "ugly".
Yes people aren't psychologists, so they follow the crowd and do the most popular, socially acceptable thing: censor content from kids. Some would do this more-so than others probably because they themselves were heavily censored and therefore think it's good to censor. But whatever, that's not what I'm wondering about.
Yes, I'm no psychologist. Yet I can state my theories and assumptions as to why things are thanks to experience and critical thinking. And so, I created this thread to find out other people's thoughts on this so I can either consider some argument(s) I haven't thought of before, or strengthen my idea.

Well, my point was that you're not going to get a deeper answer than mine from anyone but someone who has studied psychology. I mean, you're gonna get answers but they will all be filled with assumptions without academic basis, just like the ones you wrote. Critical thinking and experience don't really help much with figuring out something as complicated as psychology.

If you want to try and find some more interesting answers, since I doubt any psychologists are gonna pop up here, I suggest loading up google scholar and typing in your questions there. Search for some open access studies, might find something close to what you're asking.

[Leonardo Da Pinchi]

Publicado originalmente por Captain Morgan:

I have got a better question; why game developers or game publishers, censor stuff for parents/adults?

Not adults, laws. For example, if a kid were to easily get their hands on AO games (usually the parent's fault for being inattentive to what their kid is watching), the company or store that sold the game could potentially get sued for pornography distribution to minors.


As for the topic of censorship of stuff exposed to minors, OP forgets kids are HIGHLY impressionable as well, and sometimes aren't capable of rational thought on some subjects. (Fortnite came out, I'm sure a bunch of kids tried to "glide" off their house roofs).


In the end, it's up to the parents to determine what their children are and aren't capable of handling. And yes, parents SHOULD censor their children as needed, but not as a knee-jerk reaction. (Remember that girl who got stabbed 19 times cuz their friends wanted to become proxies for Slender Man?)

You're mentally developing up to the ages of 20 - 25 still, while most cases, exposure to uncensored media won't do harm, for some, it will do a lot.