Internet censorship has become a hot button issue ever since the internet itself has taken off; discussing this topic is tricky as the idea of censorship across the internet is not only very subjective but also very situational, there are a lot of variables to take into account considering that just about everyone nowadays frequently use the internet, each with their own principles and lines that should or shouldn’t be crossed.

The existence of internet censorship is universally understood to be essential. More and more children grow up on the internet and it is crucial to protect these children from what they consume. Most will say this job should be left to the parents, but put simply, the internet has maken it too easy to find disturbing content that can damage their young, impressionable minds. 

There is also the point that people need to be protected from themselves.

To give people absolute control and freedom to anonymously say whatever they want or to see whatever they want no matter how vile is a recipe for disaster, as it can exacerbate people’s mental illnesses or spread dangerous ideologies.

The common rebuttal for this topic is that generally people have the intelligence and common morality necessary to avoid these damaging parts of the web already, it is just a societal error.

We do not live in a perfect world, and yes, in a hypothetical perfect world, the internet is an open forem with total freedom, where individuals could find anything they wanted no matter how graphic, people would just have the common morality to not let it affect them. People argue this point because a majority of the population will do just that and use the internet but ignore the especially dark side of it all, the problem seems to have such an easy answer as the general public does it every day as they surf the web. Why can’t this be adopted into society, giving people complete and utter freedom to find whatever they please on the internet and let the negative side effects speak for themself.

What is being failed to understand here is that there are horribly unwell people with no morality that can voice and consume damaging content that other similarly unwell people use to fuel their cycle of mental deterioration. The internet should have censorship because not everyone has the same morality most do to keep them from going to corrupt parts of the internet, and even in this contrived scenario where the human race continues to ignore this deplorable division of the internet while also having absolute freedom on the web, ignoring mentally disturbed people has resulted in countless cases across America of teenage school shootings while they would also be parading on the internet before hand spouting blatant warning signs for psychological instability.

Internet censorship exists to protect young or impressionable minds from depravity while also acting as a public stand against the wicked, and although I do believe it is possible for internet censorship to cross a line, I am in full support of the one that is in place currently.