Damn You, FCC

Yeah, so Janet Jackson flashed her boob at the Super Bowl. For me at least, it rates about as high on my "give a fuck" meter as... I dunno... pocket lint. But noooo, some parents out there were outraged. I mean, what happens if little Billy actually sees a boob before he has hair on his balls? He'll grow to be a terrorist, or some serial killer. Little boys and girls aren't supposed to know about sex until they are 83.

The news of this horrific breast spread like wildfire, and all sorts of parental groups are up in arms over it. Really gets to me, cause next thing we know, the FCC takes this as an excuse to say "we're gonna lock-down on all programing on TV and Radio... and while we're at it, all pay services as well." Yeah, that means cable TV and maybe even satellite radio, if they can get away with it. Tween you and me, that is fucking idiocy. And not just cause I am for freedom of speech and beasts.

If you go over to Europe, they have a way of organizing their broadcast mediums so that, during the day, until like 8 or something, TV is clean. After that, it gets steadily more adult in nature (i.e. violence and language), until something like 10 or midnight, you can see nudity and nothing is censored. Then, until like 6 in the morning, it's open programming. It can be likened to the US rules for radio safe harbor. During safe harbor, most language on the radio is allowed, but there are still some words not allowed, and you still cannot refer to certain sexual acts in a humorous light.

That's the closest comparison I got for ya. I honestly think we need to switch to a system similar to what Europe has. Honestly, when did it become the nature of the government to try and keep everyone safe from anything that may hurt them?

This all really comes back round to the simple fact that if some parents out there (who happen to be the most vocal) would just take action on their own, and talk to their kids, not shelter them so much, the country would be far better off.

One person once mentioned that if video games get to the point that people look lifelike, and they decide to program lifelike situations of death and murder, won't that warp children?

We have realistic depictions of death and drugs and violence and rape (etc) in movie already. A good movie will suck you in and make you feel exactly when the director wants you to feel. If you're that into it, you'll feel what it's like when someone dies after begging for their life. But, you still know in the back of you mind it's fantasy.

Just because a video game gives you the ability to choose whether the person dies or not with the push of a button doesn't make it any less fantasy. I know when I'm playing GTA that everyone that I kill is just a construct, and even if they begged and pleaded for their life, and looked realistic and everything else, that wouldn't change the fact that it was fantasy. And I think kids would understand that as well. Most children by (generalization here based on experience and not fact, cause we all know I never research) the age of 6 know right from wrong and have a clear understanding of fantasy and reality. If they don't, the parents really should be doing a better job.