The way the Media treats Nudity/Sexuality

Have you guys noticed that nudity is off limits to children, but they can get into a movie full of guns and explosions? I have always wondered who decided that violence was more appropriate then a natural part of life. To me, I think nudity should be fine if your above the age of 13 and Violence should be 18+. I'm not super against action movies or anything, don't get me wrong, but it seems as if (at least to me) People are more worried about nudity then kids shooting schools up.

(This is from my experience in Canada, I'm not sure if its the same in Europe, the states etc). What do you guys think about this? Should Nudity and sexual content be more censored then killing hundreds of people?

I live in America, and I believe that the way that we treat nudity in this country is completely asinine. They act as if seeing some nudity will cause kids to go on murderous rampages and shit. Let me ask you this:

Has seeing seeing a person's genitals ever caused someone to kill their parents?
No, it has not.

Has looking at 2 people have sex ever made someone go on a killing spree at school?
No, it has not.


This i why I believe that parents should talk to their kids about sex & nudity when they are younger: so they can understand what they are seeing because, no matter what the parents do, their kids are going to see nudity on TV or on the internet or somewhere.

I would assume it's in a general case the cause of social and religious acceptability.
That is to say, everyone knows there are a lot of religions with rather severe stances on sexuality and even nudity (e.g. special clothes the women must wear). I would assume that they don't want their kids to get any ideas.
Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing in itself who knows, but the effect that it has on other people through this phobia of sexuality is an interesting thing.

You could say that it's like being appropriate with your language to a degree, you don't necessarily do it because it makes sense, but rather because there's more benefit to keeping it clean.
Therefore, there's no reason to throw nudity into anything you feel like.
Whether that's a good thing or in the end a detriment to society who knows.

And there are actually several moderately interesting court cases on making violent content, usually specifically video games, 18+ and treated as pornographic material, i.e., it's illegal for minors to have them (M rated games are a self set rating).

I'm nor one hundered percent sure on this, but in other countries, they actually have action or violent movies 18+, but movies with sexual content are PG13 and stuff like that. To them, they feel that the violence does far more damage to people rather than sexual content, where as a majority of Americans think the exact opposite.

Check this out,

By us condoning nudity to children the more likely they are to emulate it. Public Nudity isn't something appreciated and seeing our kids running around buck naked can't really spell anything good....imagine the horrors of young girls being taught to love sex before their lives really even started yet.

Well, here in Portugal it's almost the same. Nudity and sexual scenes are still very criticized by the community.
The violence, its not that much spoken, people actualy dont care and think that it doesn't have any diference on children.
Movies are only criticized by the negative if they have anithing out of the ordinary or have too much violence scenes.

Lets try reversing that. Instead of kids playing power rangers on the courtyard they're now kissing and feeling each other up. Perhaps killing just seems less explicit than fucking.

I'm pretty sure at the age I was still playing powerangers, I also still thought that girls had koodies, so I doubt that's the problem.

It's like picking your poison.

Because most adults don't realize kids are smarter than they actually are. They believe seeing a naked breast will taint their innocent minds for life. Lack of sexual education doesn't help either. I used to be neighbors with a kid who didn't know ANYTHING about the human body. It was depressing to see.

Violence in kids approved programs is also often comical and/or unrealistic.
The only nudity that is comical and unrealistic would be Pamela Anderson's breasts, heyooooo

On a more serious tone, nudity is occasionally used in kid programs for jokes but there's no actual necessity to show the kibbles and bits when people know what's going on anyways, and those kinds of jokes are a bit risque but perfectly acceptable most of the time.
Hidden sex jokes are also rampant in family films like Shrek and nobody but me complains about those.

I just don't understand how sex can be more explicit then Shooting someone repeatedly in the face with a gun, and glorifying it at that. I'm not saying sex should be advertised, I'm just saying it seems weird to me that the media treats sex like its this forbidden and dirty thing, whereas its completely natural. I don't think if the media normalized sex kids would be trying to have sex every time they saw eachother--They'd just see it as something they would do to reproduce or whatever. Like seriously, Have you seen some of these action movies? Plus the fact that I know a lot of kids who learn about it from friends and then have even more desire to do it, To get back at their parents or whatnot. Its fucked up.

ALSO: Power rangers isn't really that violent compared to what I was hoping people would pick up on. I'm using mainly movies with shooting/Martial arts etc . as an example

But heres the thing--If the media glorifies violence, most people have the sense to know: Well, thats obviously nothing like what killing a person is (or whatever, I think the point is made) I think brief nudity shouldn't be that big a deal. What is so wrong with seeing someone's breasts as opposed to seeing someone stab someone else and kill them? It's not as if seeing breasts are enough for a kid to start having sex constantly, or if a girl sees a guy's Penis, I highly doubt thats going to turn her into a giant slut. It's just for realism--If thats how a body is why should it be censored?

EDIT: Thanks for all the replies, apologies for the double post.

I don't recall any movie that any person under the age of even 18 is "allowed" to watched that has someone shooting someone else in the face repeatedly (or anything of the like). Kids aren't really supposed to be seeing that either. Kids watch Power Rangers, or Dragon Ball, or y'know all that good stuff. Yeah it has violence, but it's a very unrealistic violence that kids like to reenact with their friends just to play as their favourite badass characters.

I personally don't think kids should be exposed to sexual content. Nudity is one thing, but sexual content is another. I mean, I think I know of twelve 16-year-old girls that are preggo now. Why's that I wonder.

I wasn't being literal about the whole shooting someone else in the face repeatedly. Granted, I shouldn't exaggerate to make a point. I don't think brief sexual content or nudity is a big deal--As long as its not like a 10 minute sex scene or anything is it that big a deal? I saw a lot of 18+ movies as a kid (Like it started when I was around 8) And I don't think the scenes with nudity/sexual content messed with my head as much as the violence. I think I would rather have kids seeing nudity earlier on to get them comfortable with it, Then get comfortable with any type of fighting. Even if its just dragonball Z, it is STILL GLORIFYING VIOLENCE Don't get me wrong I love DBZ for example, but you can't honestly tell me that watching guys kicking eachothers asses until one of them dies is a good thing

Considering that we live in a nation that was in large part influenced by Christianity during its founding, it is somewhat understandable how we treat sexual acts (such as fornication) in the media. Give it some time, you'll find that the number of people who understand "Freedom of Religion" as "Freedom from Religion", will increase, while the Religious population that advocates the current handling of this sort of content declines. A likely result: this issue being addressed much differently.

Patience is a virtue.

There also doesn't seem to really be a reason you'd need nudity or sexuality in most media.
Violence drives a lot of plots but there are very few driven by nudity or sex.
Those that do have some often take the James Bond approach which is usually regarded as acceptable.

Most movies that take a mature approach on nudity and sex and implement it into the story in a significant way often are movies too sophisticated for most children anyways I would assume.

Perhaps the media is too harsh on it.
But violence is easy enough to understand for kids and makes lots of cool stories.
Kids stories too.

Climate due to geographic location can be a factor. look at central and south american programing and movies. because the average tempature in those areas is usualy high, less clothing makes more sense.

on the other end of the matter, the Abrahamic religions tend to repress all sexuality. muslims and burkas, christians and abstinance, and jews removing women from pictures(example) to avoid anything sexually suggestive.

I do understand what you are trying to say. but frankly the way I see it. violence should be allowed to children who have already reached the age where they realise what is right and what is wrong with a full understanding and start to notice their surroundings. (possibly 15 or 16 years old should be allowed)

but for nudity. personally I think that is quite a large matter. children should not view a male's/female's nude body at such a young age. of course what I mean is not just exposing the whole body. lets say at the beach a female is wearing a really sexy bikini that is rather tight on her body. something like that should not be shown to children that easily. those who have reached the age of 15 or 16 I am not really sure if they should be allowed or not but for those who are younger should not view such a thing frankly.

We think too much of nudity. It is a very simple thing, but we always blow it out of proportion and get all crazy about it.

Seeing a bare pair of tits is not the same thing as seeing sex. Nowhere close. But the idea seems to be that they're equal, that seeing some tits will make every little boy go crazy with lust.

Well, when I was little, I did go crazy whenever I saw tits. But you know why that was? Because tits were special things that you ordinarily didn't get to see. They were taboo and "not for young eyes" and made of rainbows and unicorns and made every dream come true! Except they really weren't - they were just tits. But when something is hidden away, the way nudity is, you think it's more important than it is.

Anybody ever see or read Ranma 1/2? Tits galore! Ranma-chan is always running around without a shirt on, it seems. But it's not sexual. It's funny. It's a joke. Anyone read or watch Beelzebub? You can see the baby's dick in every scene! But it's a baby, so who the hell cares? Same with Goku and Gohan in Dragon Ball; they both appear completely naked, but nothing is made of it. Because nudity is natural; we're all naked under our clothes.

The West is hung up on the idea that we should only see others naked when we have sex, but that's not how it should be at all. That only makes things worse. Nudity isn't something you should never experience until you're eighteen (and then you get blown away with the copious amounts of it). You should have basic knowledge of the bodies of both genders by the time you're a teenager, if only so you won't be incredibly curious about it. Kids shouldn't play with each other completely naked, but it shouldn't be taught that seeing another person's bare body is a heinous sin or that being seen naked is the end of the world.

Or to put it a bit too simply: The West is oversensitive about the human body.