HS- The counter argument for this is that it is the moral duty of the school to make sure that the student concentrate on their studies rather than playing violent games that could create bad behaviour in later life. Some may also say that the school has the right to ask the student to not have these over-age games on. Lets take school as a service. Services have certain rules and conditions that need to be followed in order for you to enjoy the service. If these rules aren’t followed, the provider doesn’t have to provide the service to the consumer. For Example if you For example- if you use the Microsoft Offices programs, the conditions are not to re-sell or let use a product key in more than one computer. If you do this, without the permission of Microsoft then Microsoft has the rights to discontinue their services without any notice. In this situation, the condition is that students, who want to study in KGV, must have laptops and the games on their laptops must be within their age limit.
In this scenario we believe that censorship should be allowed. It is ethically correct as the teachers are only trying to prevent the students from going in the wrong way. Additionally children at their age need guidance as they are not fully aware of the consequences of what they are doing.
Point 2
JT - As mentioned earlier, the school has restricted the visitation of certain sites that have certain key words. This is definitely an act of censorship as it is denying pieces of information, which is very similar to the one that China has been criticized for. We believe that the censorship on school computers is an effective way of making sure that the students are going in the right direction and have the right attitude in school. The quote "Fear of corrupting the mind of the younger generation is the loftiest of cowardice." by Holbrook Jackson a famous british writer and journalist suggest that the most cowardest thing you can do is to censor in order to protect the minors. I personally don't think that this is the case for the school. As I mentioned earlier, the school probably wants to make sure that student don't get side tracked.
HS - However some people believe that this act violates the freedom of speech as it is denying information, if you are above 18, you should have a right to view whatever you want. We as a pair, strongly disagree to this statement, Even if the school consists of 18 years olds, the majority of the school population are minorities. The school has to be a utilitarian, because everyone in the school society is looked at as an equal. If you look at this at the global level, China is very similar they look at the situation as utilitarian. By protecting certain sites they want protect their people. I would also like to add that China is a Communism regime, and not a democracy, hence it has no law which states anything to do with freedom of information. How can any democratic country criticize China for not following their democratic laws when its not a democracy? This creates another knowledge issue. The Internet is a medium of communication like television, periodicals, and radio. The Internet is used by millions of people of from all over the world. But remember its just one medium. So whose laws apply? Pornography is illegal in the Middle East, so can an American posting images on the Internet that someone in Saudi Arabia downloads be held liable? If a person in Japan posts a message that someone in the US finds offensive or demeaning, can the American sue according to US law, or does the case fall under Japanese law? Or, if this type of offense is not illegal according to Japanese law, is there any basis at all for judicial intervention? So, if there was to be a universal Freedom of Speech law, it would have to happens should all participating countries get together and make an international law and have a body that governs it. Is this even possible? If not, Does it follow the law of the country with the most user, if that is the case it is China. Or should is US? Is UK?
Conclusion
In conclusion, we believe that its the censorship in our school is a rational option that has to be taken for making sure that students of KGV are going in the right way. However we personally believe that the school should look into more topics to help the students paint the whole picture. This is our belief. There are lots of other views.
JT : The Teleologist Approach for this issue would be to look at the advantages and consequences of censorship and come with a result that restrictions to visit certain Internet site and having a no games policy in school is logical however they may come to a result that having a restricted view on history is not acceptable. On the other hand a deontologist, will just look at the ethical side of the argument and will probably support going against the censorship.