T he natural inclination of parents is to protect children from exposure to negative behavior. Since children are natural imitators, isolating children from socially unacceptable actions reduces the probably of the acquisition of such habits.
Societies also play an instructive role.
If popular entertainment and culture minimize the depiction of destructive conduct, general acceptance of such behavior is reduced. Perhaps the most salutary example of this is the reduction in the depiction of cigarette smoking and casual references to recreational drug use on television and in the movies. The de-glamorization of these has helped to discourage their use to the betterment of public health. However, there comes a point where protecting the public from negative ideas reeks more of censorship than of pedagogy, more of political correctness run amok than of good taste, more of Soviet-like rewriting of history than of modesty, and more of mendacity than of manners. The US Post Office has crossed the line and painted itself as a collection of prissy nannies protecting us from even the smallest indiscretion.