Should freedom of speech sometimes be restricted?

I believe that the first amendment should be a right that can in no way ever be limited or withheld from an individual regardless of a contract or other legal document. Like in a school for example, they shouldn't be able to limit what you say, wear, etc.

Nightl0ck wrote:I believe that the first amendment should be a right that can in no way ever be limited or withheld from an individual regardless of a contract or other legal document.  Like in a school for example, they shouldn't be able to limit what you say, wear, etc.

Saying schools shouldn't be able to limit what you say and wear is a bit much to say without further explanation. You shouldn't be kept from having a healthy debate with your teacher over a subject, but you should be held to what you say and how you say it. Using "bad words", name calling, and the like or standing up for your beliefs by demeaning the beliefs of another should not be acceptable. You shouldn't be allowed to wear shirts that promote alcohol or sex/pornography at school, short skirts, short dresses, etc, but I also agree that school uniforms aren't the right way to go either.

Blood wrote:

Nightl0ck wrote:I believe that the first amendment should be a right that can in no way ever be limited or withheld from an individual regardless of a contract or other legal document.  Like in a school for example, they shouldn't be able to limit what you say, wear, etc.

Saying schools shouldn't be able to limit what you say and wear is a bit much to say without further explanation. You shouldn't be kept from having a healthy debate with your teacher over a subject, but you should be held to what you say and how you say it. Using "bad words", name calling, and the like or standing up for your beliefs by demeaning the beliefs of another should not be acceptable. You shouldn't be allowed to wear shirts that promote alcohol or sex/pornography at school, short skirts, short dresses, etc, but I also agree that school uniforms aren't the right way to go either.

I didn't mean that in a way of allowing racism and bullying to go on without repercussions. However, students shouldn't be afraid to voice their own opinions in a way that they feel comfortable, like by using swear words if it gets their point across.

It's an interesting question. I think there's a difference between restricting freedom of speech (in that it's illegal to say something at all) and limiting the forums in which one is permitted to say certain things. I don't necessarily perceive it as the revocation of freedom of speech when someone is called off stage during a debate, for example, particularly if they are being disruptive. They are still free to speak on whatever they choose, but not here.

On the topic of what I actually consider the loss of freedom of speech, consider the case of hate speech. Most people would say that hate speech should absolutely be banned. The issue here is that the nature of censorship means someone is going to decide on your behalf what you should and should not hear. I've grown up in Malaysia, and on a trip down to a newspaper publisher (I was interested in journalism when I was younger), the staff made it apparent to me that the government was actively censoring certain things, such as telling the newspaper it had to crop out opposition party members to ensure they didn't receive too much public recognition when the elections rolled around.

It's a tricky topic for me, but only when it comes to children. In the end, I think some people are responsible and thoughtful enough to be trusted with all forms of speech (for instance, most people ignore hate speech and think it's dumb), but there are people that are influenced by it. In the end, I believe in people enough that I think, on the whole, freedom of speech results in a better society.

The issue for me is that when children are exposed to certain messages, they arguably don't have the cognitive tools just yet to reason about the topic presented properly (like some adults, only it's much more likely). For instance, let's consider exposing a child at school to something about guns or evolution vs creationism. The child simply doesn't have the tools to evaluate all the positions properly, and will likely be swayed simply by their environment instead of message content. This is a little bit finnicky though, because it means children will form their views in the vacuum of the family environment.

tl;dr - Freedom of speech is pretty cool, it might need to be restricted temporarily in environments that children are in.

You have the freedom to express ideas, opinions and other things freely across many countries.

However you don't have the freedom to be an asshole. Take for example the kid who sued sony because they banned him for using offensive language stating that they infringed on his right to free speech. He lost because he was just being an asshole over voice chat.

If your using a private service to express yourself, it's completely up to whoever is providing the service to filter what you say.

In terms of the law, nothing should happen to you no matter what you say.