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Report on Don't You Dare Read This!
Smart girls decide for themselves™.
Well, not really! But talking about censorship does get us to thinking about what kind of world we live in. Do you ever see censorship where you are? Have you ever experienced it? Read on to compare your thoughts with other Smart Girls!
A LOT more girls than boys took our survey: 294 to 8! Ages of responders were generally between 11 and 16 years old, but we had some as young as seven years or older than 22 tell us what they think too. More eldest children took our survey than any other group: 127 total! After that, youngest children were the next biggest group with 73. But there were 49 middle children and 42 only children replying, so wherever you stand in your family, there are other Smart Girls who can relate!
As usual, you guys come from all over! Nearly 74% said that they came from either a big city, suburb, or town. That means that about 1/4 of you feel like you come from small villages or rural areas. You live in lots of different countries, too. Some of the countries we heard from were: Honduras, Singapore, American Samoa, and Norway. Wow! Your ethnic backgrounds were also diverse. Check out the graph below to see who we heard from...
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| What is your racial/ethnic background? |
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| About half reported that they are of European descent, and the other half identified themselves another way. |
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Take a look at the next two pictures. They are about people telling you not to look at something, and why. How does that make you feel? Did you agree?
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| Which of the following has anyone ever said you shouldn't read, listen, or watch because it wasn't appropriate for you? |
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count | percent |
item
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| book |
121 | 12.94 |
| magazine |
127 | 13.58 |
| tv show |
196 | 20.96 |
| movie |
213 | 22.78 |
| radio show |
37 | 3.96 |
| website |
179 | 19.14 |
| newspaper |
17 | 1.82 |
| never |
27 | 2.89 |
| other |
18 | 1.93 |
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| Only a small number of Smart Girls told us that they've been warned away from a newspaper before. |
| If someone has told you that you shouldn't read, listen or watch something (or if this has happened to you multiple times), what was their reasoning? |
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| Some of the top reasons people censored were for sexual content and swearing. |
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We asked how you would feel if somebody told you not to read, watch, or listen to something. There were four responses to pick from: upset - because you have the right to what you are interested in, frustrated - because you wanted to learn something about the material, confused - because you couldn't see what was so wrong with it, or thankful - because you felt like you'd been spared something bad. Nearly 1/4 of responders, or 23%, felt thankful, where the others, or 77%, felt one of the other three. The biggest reponse was upset, with approximately 37% of those who responded to the question feeling this way.
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| How often have you been told you can't read, listen or watch something because it wasn't appropriate? |
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| Most of you told us that this has happened to you at least once, and many said it's been more than once! |
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Compare the following two bar charts. We asked about who has told you to stay away from something, and then who has a place to say this kind of thing to you. Do you see a difference or not between these charts? What do you think this means?
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| If you have been told you can't read, listen or watch something, who has told you this? |
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| Parents, other family members, school staff, and religious leaders were some of the people who told you not to look at something. |
| Who do you think should be able to tell you what you can read, listen or watch? |
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| Seems like people feel that either their parents can say something about what you look at, or no one can! |
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Okay, now compare the next two line charts. We wanted to know if you've ever disregarded the warning, when someone has told you not to look at something. Then, we wanted to know if you have ever looked back after listening to or reading something, and wished that someone had tried to stop you from looking at it. What are the differences between these two questions? What do the charts say? It looks like a lot of you have ignored censorship before, but most of you have never wished that someone had censored something for you. What do you think this says about your thoughts on censorship?
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| How often have you disregarded a warning and read, watched or listened to something someone told you that you shouldn't? |
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| The majority of our survey-takers reported that they have ignored censorship before. |
| How often have you read, watched or listened to something and after the fact, wished that someone had stopped you from doing so? |
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| Most people told us that they'd never looked back and wished someone had tried to stop them from looking at something. |
| Which of the following do you consider censorship? |
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count | percent |
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consider censor
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| movie ratings |
155 | 10.52 |
| advisory labels music |
128 | 8.69 |
| web_school |
180 | 12.22 |
| religious |
93 | 6.31 |
| dress codes |
125 | 8.49 |
| book banning |
140 | 9.5 |
| tv/movie edits |
147 | 9.98 |
| artist |
132 | 8.96 |
| newspaper stories |
106 | 7.2 |
| schools_blogs |
127 | 8.62 |
| parents |
140 | 9.5 |
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| You guys see censorship in a lot of places in your lives: from newpaper stories, to artists, to dress codes. |
What role do you think the Internet plays in censorship?
Well, 105 out of 288, or about 36%, believe that the Internet makes it harder for people to censor information, since someone could probably try to find it somewhere else online anyway.
Approximately 25% of respondents, or 73 of 288, felt like people worried about what was on the Internet more, so tried harder to control the information there.
Some of you saw the Internet as a possibility for activism. About 6%, or 18 respondents, said that it could bring people together to fight censorship.
The rest aren't sure what role the Internet has to play in censorship. Fair answer, Smart Girls!
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We wanted to know how often your community deals with censorship. Whereas 49 people said they always do, and 62 said their communities never do, 202 respondents told us that there communities were somewhere in between. That means that more of you told us it has happened in your communities, or happens on occasion, but isn't something that happens at the extremes (all the time, or never).
Another question asked was how often you read banned or challenged books. We heard that 144 of you were reading them sometimes, often, or all the time. But more people, 169 total, told us that they either rarely or never read banned or challenged books. On a related note, we found out that more of you have not gotten into trouble for expressing your ideas than have gotten into trouble: 205 to 88. Interesting!
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What would you do if you saw someone reading, listening to or watching something that you thought was inappropriate? Here are the answers we got and the percentages of survey-takers who told us about what they would do in this situation.
I would ask them why they were reading/listening to/watching it and hope to learn more about their opinion: 27%
I would take it from them or turn it off: 3%
I would talk to them about why I thought it was inappropriate and hope they would stop: 16%
I wouldn't do anything because who gets to say what's appropriate anyway: 42%
I wouldn't do anything but I would hope someone else would stop them.: 11%
For those Smart Girls adding this all up, the total percentages do not equal 100, but these are just approximates, which means that we've rounded the answers to make it more simple to read through.
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| How much do you think censorship affects people your age? |
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| Many of our survey-takers think that censorship affects young people a lot! |
Finally, we got your opinions on censorship. For example, what should be censored, and why? Who gets to do the censoring? Here are some replies...
I hate it. It's a free country. You can actually learn something from banned/bad books/movies/songs/TVshows etc.
Censorship is something that nobody can really say is cut-and-dry. When someone censors something, it is because they are either wanting a sense of power or just don't think that the people that they are "protecting" are responsible.
I feel that some censorship is unjust, but most censorship is meant for our safety and well-being.
I feel ok [about censorship, and the person who should be in charge of it is] the president!
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Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts
with us!
Please remember that all web-based polls
are not scientific because the pollsters cannot randomly select the
respondents to participate in the surveys.
All our surveys are anonymous; check out our privacy
policy. All data copyright 1996-2007.
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