Cue Family Guy Song (warning, not FCC approved)
The Family Communications Commission, protecting the innocent little children that sit glued to the TV all day because there’s nothing else to entertain them.
Although the FCC still exists, prime time television has been getting more risque as time goes on. Does the FCC just not care anymore? Or maybe this is a sign that times are changing. Media is everywhere these days, it’s unavoidable. TVs, computers, laptops, smart phones, tablets, etc. contain the world behind the glass of their screens. Kids are getting access to technology like this at earlier and earlier ages now too. I didn’t have my first flip phone until I was at least 12, but I see 6 year olds with their own iPhones now and they can do just about whatever they want on them.
Society always spouts things like “we must protect the children from explicit content!” and I always chuckle at that and ask, how? What can we even do to stop kids from seeing things we don’t want them to see? Not much, in my opinion. Kids will see explicit things. They’ll ask their parents about it and probably get looks of horror. But you can’t take back what’s been seen, the child knows about it now. And what were we really doing in the first place hiding it from them?
The idea that children are pure, fragile little creatures that will crumble at the slightest touch of impurity is absurd. If your kid asks you about what sex is, and you act horrified at the question, what kind of imprint will that put on the child? Also, how do you choose when they’re old enough to know about this “forbidden biological concept”? It all seems kind of idiotic to me.
Let’s try giving free reign to media producers, give them a chance to do whatever they want with their content no matter the time slot. Kids are so much more likely to see explicit content from their devices than from a TV, so why spend so much money keeping things from the screen that everyone has already seen? It’s a bit redundant.
To put this all together, I don’t think we need the FCC anymore because we have media around us at all times uncensored for all ages. So instead of funding something like the FCC to give us protection we don’t need, let’s put that money into education so we can actually teach kids about the new things they see on TV and not shove it behind the curtain of adulthood. Gradual education is key, keeping them innocent until one undecided point in their lives and then pulling the curtain away to reveal the true cruelty in the world is far more messed up than seeing sex on TV.
Note: This is just all my opinion, I’m not a big fan of kids in the first place so I don’t really understand the whole “we must protect our children” notion