分析文章:父母应该审查他们孩子的阅读材料吗? Should parents censor their children’s reading material?

大多数父母监护孩子的行为,并审查他们发现的错误行为,但是他们是否应该审查儿童阅读材料呢?
没有父母希望自己的孩子长大后使用脏话——至少对于每个好家长而言，几乎每个家长都这么认为。因此，禁止儿童阅读那些充满了脏话的书籍听上去相当合理。同样的还有性，暴力，毒品和其他大量的话题。但实际上，最重要的应该是做好年龄分级。如果说一个八岁儿童得到一本充满了脏话的书，那首先这本书肯定不会是写给八岁儿童看的。这书明显是不合适儿童年龄阅读，在到达合适年龄前应该禁止儿童阅读。
Most parents monitor their children’s activities, and censor things that they find inappropriate, but in what ways should they censor children’s reading material?
No parent wants their child to grow up using bad language – this much is true of nearly every parent, and at least every good one. Therefore, it seems reasonable enough to stop children reading books that are full of bad language. The same thing goes for sex, violence, drugs, and a whole lot of other things. But, the important thing is to keep things age-appropriate. If an eight year old picks up a book that is full of these things, then the book was never written for eight year old in the first place. The book is clearly not age appropriate for them and they should not be allowed to read it until they are older.
This is the key point. Many parents would stop their child ever going near that book, but perhaps it is just best to make them wait until they are fifteen of sixteen, and mature enough to deal with its themes. Many people would say that impressionable young people should never be exposed to these ideas, but in reality, it’s important that children get some exposure to unpleasant things. Otherwise, how else do they learn about them? Young people who have lived incredibly sheltered lives may go off the rails when they finally taste freedom, and can put themselves into all sorts of dangerous situations because they’re not at all streetwise. At the end of the day, a novel that shows all of the nasty effects of taking drugs is hardly going to encourage children to do them: it will have the opposite effect if anything.
A younger child, however, may respond very differently to such themes, becoming angry or upset rather than taking an important message away from the reading. This is why a younger child’s reading should be more closely monitored in many circumstances.
Some parents also stop their children reading certain books on religious grounds. This is completely understandable if the book promotes Satanism, or undesirable practices, but in many cases, censorship is totally unnecessary. Books are often banned on the basis of referring to magic, or witchcraft. While the bible does say that these things are bad, if included in a work of fiction then they are not going to do any harm to a child. Focus should not be on specific things that may crop up in the book, but on the messages that it conveys. Ultimately, the best thing is to keep it age appropriate, read things and keep an open mind. Reading is good for them, so parent’s shouldn’t discourage it.#p#分页标题#e#