Name:
Date:
Core:
World Geography
Mental Warm-Up:
Thinking About Censorship
Directions: Read the definition and answer the questions that follow.
Censor: To ban or prohibit (to prevent a person from seeing or reading certain materials)
Censorship at CLMS…
Clark Lane Middle School has decided to censor the internet. Filters have been placed on all the
computers in the school. The filters are designed to prevent students from accessing websites that the
school has deemed inappropriate for students.

Do you think that CLMS should censor the Internet at school? Why or why not? ___________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Imagine If….
The United States government decided to censor the internet. Filters would be placed on all
computers and mobile devices in the United States. The filters would prevent anyone in the country
from accessing websites that the government deems inappropriate. Anyone who tried to bypass the
filters would be arrested and thrown in jail.

How would you feel if the United States censored the Internet? _________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
One more question
on the back!
What message is this button sending about censorship? ____
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
World Geography
The Role of Censorship in Chinese Society:
Google v. China
The Chinese Government has always maintained strict control over the flow of information in
their country. Freedom of speech and freedom of the press does not exist in China in the same way
that it does in the United States. In the United States, journalists are free to print stories about
whatever they want, with few restrictions. Film makers can make movies about whatever subjects
they choose with little government interference. Authors can publish books freely in the United
States. This is not the case in China. In China, the government must approve any story before it can
be printed in the newspaper. The government must grant permission to filmmakers before their
movies can be shown to the public and authors must also get the government’s permission before
publishing their books. Anyone who violates these laws in China can be thrown in jail.
Before the invention of the internet, it was much easier for the Chinese government to censor
information. They would simply ban the production of books and or movies in China. The Chinese
government made it illegal to import banned books and movies from other nations. While some
people broke the law, most Chinese citizens were unable to access information that the Chinese
government censored. The development of the internet has made it much for difficult for China to
prohibit Chinese citizens from reading/viewing censored materials. The Chinese government forced
Google and Yahoo!, two of the most widely used search engines in the
world, to censor their search engines in China.
The Chinese government made it impossible for Chinese citizens
to learn about events that it deemed inappropriate or dangerous. For
example, the Chinese government has censored all stories about the 1989
student uprisings in Tiananmen Square. The Chinese government fears
that if young Chinese citizens knew about the event, they might be
inspired to start a similar uprising. If you were to do a Google image
search of Tiananmen Square in the United States, you would find hundreds
of pictures of “tank man.” However, if you were to conduct that same
search in China, you would not find one single image of tank man,
because the Chinese government has had them removed.
The Chinese government uses censorship as a way of controlling the 1.27 billion people that
live in that country. They hope that by limiting the Chinese citizen’s access to stories of rebellion,
coup e’tats and student-uprisings, they can prevent such
things from occurring in their own country. The Chinese
government believes that it must have full control of its
people in order to keep the country stable and safe.
However, censorship has also been used by the government
to hide its human rights abuses from its own citizens.