Attempting to Change the World for the Sake of Your Children

There is nothing more aggravating to me than parents that expect the rest of the world to assist them in their obligations of child rearing. It is not society's job to protect your children from negative influences: it's your job to protect your children from society!

Regarding music: stop attempting to censor artists because their lyrics don't fit your level of appropriateness. If you don't want your children hearing or singing along to expletives, delete it off their iPods. Throw out their CD's. It's that simple. The boycotts and protests, the banning and the burning: all of that is ridiculous. It's art, and it's freedom of expression. As soon as that music is made unavailable to the rest of the world: kiss your ability to voice your opinions against it goodbye as well.

About movies and television: there are MPAA ratings and parental locks for good reason. Use them. Don't take your children to a PG-13 film, hear a simple curse word and then write a letter of complaint to the film's producers, writers and director. Don't take it a step further and proceed to boycott all of the starring actor's future releases when the response you receive (if any) isn't what you expected. If you allow your children to watch MTV, there is a good chance that they will see a few half naked women, probably making out in a hot tub. If that's unacceptable, do your job and block the channel out. Don't call for your cable company's immediate removal of 'such an obscene channel'.