Censorship

As a society we want our young people to be literate, thoughtful, and caring human beings; but we also attempt to control what they read, think, and care about. We feel the need to "protect" children from dangerous or disturbing ideas and information. Of course, what is dangerous or disturbing to one person or segment of society may be exciting and innovative to others and perhaps just "the truth" to still others. This combination of multiplicity of values and concern for young people keeps censorship alive in school and public libraries.

Current concerns for literacy and critical thinking in education may actually increase incidents of censorship. Literacy assumes the power of texts and encourages exposure to competing ideas and beliefs. Critical thinking implies questioning, the analysis and evaluation of those beliefs to come to a personal judgment that empowers young people to take ownership of ideas and control of their own intellectual and moral lives.

New technologies are also causing an increase in incidents of censorship. The history of communications technologies, from the written word to modern electronic media, has been written with fear as critics contemplate the most dire consequences of each move that takes us farther from the personal one-on-one interaction with another human being in real time and space.

The internet and the world wide web are especially problematic. In the virtual world of these media, there is a potential for a kind of anonymous intimacy that can be very seductive in our often fragmented, disconnected lives. Young people, often very comfortable with and eager to explore these new media at the same time they are coping with the myriad problems of coming-of-age in our society, may be especially susceptible to such seduction. Like most things, this can be either good or bad.

I am encouraged and impressed by students who have exhausted traditional school and library resources who discover new and more current material on the internet and the web. At times they even participate in dialogues that move knowledge to new dimensions. I am even more impressed to see previously unmotivated students, seduced by information and ideas, discovering the power of their own intellects through electronic exchange. For me, the question becomes: Are we willing to give up this potential (if we could) to "protect" young people from "dangerous" encounters?

For the most part, I can make the analogy to other media and decide that, if we are not willing to eliminate books and libraries because they may contain "dangerous" ideas, why would we attempt to keep young people from the internet and the world wide web? Obviously, however, we do attempt to "protect" young people from much that is available in traditional print media, and various types of filtering software are now available to "protect"