Ahh so many things. Look:
Hash and Rocky have it on the ball. The fact is that the vast majority of people in the U.S (over young ages) don't have any interest in anime, and if you kept it totally uncut, you would not get a lot of viewers, as the more mature audience would still be disinterested and the younger audiences would be ushered away by their mommies. By censoring it and putting it on after-schoolish times, they were able to hook a lot of people who otherwise might've not been able to view it. Look at this forum. A crapload of the members probobly got into anime, period, because of "OMG FUNI'S ****ING AWFUL RUINED VERSION OF DBZ." <--- actually, let me correct myself. It's not that a Western audience would never appreciate anime. Hell, if you put some really good anime, primetime on Fox or something, there might be an anime SENSATION or some crap. But the thing is, executives think the way I just explained. According to "statistics" and blah blah blah, they believe an older American audience would never give a crap about some cartoon show.
People love to argue about video games/TV's influence on children. It's simple fact that we are shaped by our experiences, and frankly, I have seen children do and say stupid things because of something they saw/played, TV or otherwise. Children are stupid and impressionable, and sometimes parents can't do much about it. Is it bad parenting? Maybe. Some people need to work a lot to keep their family off the streets, are you going to point fingers at them? TV raises our kids in society today, which is why censorship organizations are created, because people need to control the media so 5 year olds can't watch Japanese diarrhea porno when they flip past Disney.
People talk about how we should expose them, because they'll just find it all out anyway. Just keep in mind: children are sensitive. If I sat down with my 6 year old little cousin, and watched like... Fist of the North Star, or something just filled with death and gore, she would probobly have nightmares for weeks. The point is, that if society decides to completely NUMB it's youth against extreme violence and/or sex by throwing little kids into the fray, then it's all over. Sometimes just explaining it simply doesn't work.
Morpherex, your statement is foolish. Rules are decided by consensus opinions of large groups of people (i.e SOCIETY). I don't know about you, but a baby's ass and nipples, on the large part, are not considered by most people to be a very sexual image. Whereas a woman's ass/tits would be. Boobs are an odd thing, but I guess as long as you don't see the nippies, then it's not nudity, and that's simply how society works. I mean it's not like men can show the shaft of their happy stick, but cover up the glans; however, this is a hypocrisy seen in culture itself, not just the media.
Words that cannot be shown: the list is getting smaller and smaller, but that aside, is it really right to train children into calling each other "farm animal copulating female orifice cleaner sluts?" I can't really give an example here, heh. The point is, that people want to instill values, and it's a lot easier to not have them influenced by crap like swearing like a sailor, then being forced to correct them over and over when they figure out new words like "queef." When you're older, you can make your own decisions as to what's appropriate. But you can't trust dumb little kids with that kind of responsibility; to see lots of gore, but not to take for granted the value of life, or to see lots of sex, but not to objectify women or degrade the value of love. In the end it's about responsibility and comprehension of these things. That's all part of -maturity-, and maturity is something little kids don't have.
