I just read this story about boycotting the movie Jackass. Basically, the reasons sited are that kids are going out and imitating what they see on TV and in the movies, and hurting themselves in the process.

Is it just me, or is this kind of boycotting (or worse yet, censorship, which thankfully hasn't happened yet) totally and completely rediculous? I guess the question, really, is where is the line drawn? We obviously(?) can't outlaw everything with violent content, can we? And if so, would that stop bored kids from going out and finding something else potentially dangerous to do?

I'm not stupid. I was recently a kid myself. I did dumb stuff, and I sometimes got hurt doing dumb stuff. And I probably got lucky a number of times that I or some of my friends didn't get hurt worse than we did. But the responsibility still remains on me, and not where I got the idea from.

The problem isn't Jackass, or any other number of violent things out there. The problem is the lack of teaching that there are consequences for our actions, and that we are accountable for the things that we do. Period.

It's probably impossible to say that parents can control all the content that enters childrens systems, but I do believe that guidelines and general street-smarts can be established at a young age that give kids the ability to filter out what is a good idea and what is a bad idea. At least, most of us were able to do that when we were kids.