#modernissues

‘Abuse but you turn the other cheek’ Watercolour on paper ©September 2025 Helen Swann Viewer Interpretation

by Bernardo Sunye

Censorship has always been a delicate subject to talk about, especially when it concerns the Internet. Some people are for it, as they believe it is the best way to protect people from unwanted subjects, while others believe censoring handicaps someone’s knowledge, and doesn’t help them deal with the real world. This debate can be centered on a variety of situations, such as parental control, blocking sites at a school, or the full-out lockdown of a country.

           When it comes to parental control on the Internet, the argument essentially goes like this: those for it will say that children should not be allowed to view sites that could provide a bad influence or maybe even scar them emotionally (for those of you who have been on 4Chan or Reddit, you know what I’m talking about), while those against it will say that depending on the age of the kid, he should be allowed to make his own decisions, and even if you do try block sites, it’s becoming increasingly more difficult to make sure your kid doesn’t see them anyway. Children’s early introduction to technology can make them quite savvy when it comes to disabling parental control. That, coupled with kid’s desire to prove their parents wrong and access the site they want to go on, makes it quite difficult for parents to have any sort of control when it comes restricting Internet access.

           The argument for schools is basically the same, except it’s much harder to get back past the Web filtering software. This may seem like a good idea for the most part, as it prevents students from accessing certain things that may be too much for them at their age, like Pornhub (although again, at a certain age, the kid has the right to make his own decisions). The problem is this software sometimes blocks educational sites and that are relevant tot what the student is researching, because they may contain words that are automatically red-flagged and filtered. For instance, The Canadian National History Society was obligated to change its magazines name, because The Beaver was causing the web filters to block it from schools. So, while the thought and intentions may be in a positive vein, this censoring just isn’t practical.

           The problem truly lies with a countrywide ban of information, much like the situation involving the Chinese government. This is a country that blocks sites from around the world that criticize the Communist Party and provide harmful information that could discredit it. The scary thing about this is that the Internet is extremely popular in China, with more than 700 million users. To put that into perspective, a quarter of the world’s online population comes from China. This is frightening because this proves that the Chinese government’s extreme actions may in fact be working and sends a terrible message to the rest of the world’s leaders. This restriction of information is benefitting the Chinese government, and if there’s no worldwide pushback against this sort of action, what kind of world could we be looking at in 50, 30 or maybe even 20 years?

           Internet censorship is something that must be looked at carefully. With moderation it can be a positive contribution to the world, but if it gets too extreme, it could have a severely negative impact on our world.