Parental Advisory Labels on CDs & Videos

In a society founded on the ideal of freedom of expression and artistic creativity, censorship is always a struggle. Betty Houchin Winfield recounts a brief history of the attempts to censor music lyrics and other creative forms of expression:

Banning suggestive words is not new, especially for written expression. Over 100 years ago, Anthony Comstock and his Society for the Suppression of Vice stifled all kinds of written expression, especially those words and pictures concerning sexuality. In nineteenth century Italy, VerdiÆs operas, such as ôLa Traviata,ö were considered so controversial that the composer wrote different librettos to fit different locales. Community standards ruled even then. For over 50 years on radio, certain songsÆ sexual lyrics were unacceptable. NBC banned 147 recorded songs in 1940; songs such as ôLove For Saleö could only be broadcast as an instrumental (14).

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ental advisory labels or stickers to albums, tapes, and CDs that are judged to be sexually explicit or otherwise offensive to significant segments of the populationö (106). During the 1980s, the record companies voluntarily adopted a rating system and the use of ôParental Advisory: Explicit Lyricsö stickers. By April 1990, they had put a standardized labeling system in place. Deciding which CDs should get warning labels can be a complicated decision. Winfield reports, ôFor a message to be declared obscene it must meet all parts of a threeprong legal test,ö including the application of ôcontemporary community standards,ö patently offensive sexual content as defined by state law, and redeeming social value (12). However, warning labels can be used to give notice that material might be offensive to some audiences, especially minors. These labels are a good beginning. They alert parents to the possibility that a record or CD may have offensive content without having to listen to it or know much about it. However, minors could still buy CDs with warning labels and hide them from their parents. Therefore, minors under the age of 18 should not be allowed to buy material with warning labels, in the same way that they are not al
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Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)

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