Monday, January 31, 2005

You Have the Right..to Shutup

Some are concerned about a recent survey that shows, among other things, two-thirds of high schoolers interviewed have problems with the first amendment.
...when told of the exact text of the First Amendment, more than one in three
high school students said it goes "too far" in the rights it guarantees. Only
half of the students said newspapers should be allowed to publish freely without
government approval of stories.

While seemingly worrisome, I wonder how this compares to high school kids in the past. Is this a question that is tracked over time? It seems fairly basic, so I suspect it has been.

My only off-handed explanation for the results, other than we possibly have a growing population of young fascists, is perhaps it has to do with their life experience so far. All their lives their parents have "regulated" much of what they say, are allowed to watch on TV, read, etc. Maybe a little content regulation doesn't seem that outrageous to them. Just a theory. On the other hand, as I remember it, by high school I wanted my parents (or anyone else) to have little as little control over me and what I did as possible.

I wonder if there is a similar poll of say, 19-22 year olds.

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