Censorship and Filtering Programs to Prevent Access to Obscene Content

The Council of State Governments
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
The Council of State Governments
The significance of the internet in modern society cannot be understated. Children are spending most of their time on the internet than before. It offers unlimited opportunities to expand horizons and enhance creativity. However, the opportunities come with a greater risk due to children’s access to pornographic materials and racial propaganda. Their access to pornography will likely shape their sexual practices and engage in risky sexual activities early (Quadara et al., 2017). On the other side, racial propaganda undermines the idea of a unified community where each individual has equal rights and freedoms. Therefore, I believe that indirect censorship and the application of filtering programs for children are essential in protecting them against accessing internet materials that might harm them. This paper explains why censorship and filtering programs are critical when children use the internet and the need of the state to uphold the two ideologies.
Censoring and filtering programs prevent children from accessing pornographic and other harmful content on the internet. Exposing children and adolescents to pornography is associated with liberal sexual stances such as premarital sex and casual sex. Evidence suggests that early exposure to pornography increases the chances of early sexual experience. It is also associated with risky sexual activities such as practicing unprotected vaginal and anal sex (Kappeler, 2015). Early sexual activities might result in teenage pregnancies among young folks, which leads to adverse short-term and long-term effects for teen parents, their children, and society (WHO, 2020). Early pregnancies adversely impact the health and educational outcome of teen parents. For instance, research indicates that early pregnancies have an excellent health effect on mothers and babies. Pregnancy and childbearing problems are the significant causes of mortality for girls between 15-19 worldwide. Women under 20 years usually give birth to children with several problems, such as low birth weight, severe neonatal problems, and premature delivery (WHO, 2020). Early pregnancies and childbearing result in school dropouts for girls jeopardizing their future and chances of securing employment. As expresse...