bad language........kids.....

[Fee]

Hi board
I'm back after a substantial period of lurking due to changed circumstances.
Following on from the "chucked" thread, particularly the issue of language, I was wondering how many members have kids, how many of those kids dive, and how many read this board?
I'm certainly not in favour of censorship, and I wouldn't let my 11 year old on here without watching what he was accessing, which is why hopefully peace will reign now on the boards.
Hallelujah!

[Mr T.]

Amen to that!!

[John Gulliver]

I know I'm just an old-fashioned fart (does that count as a swearword?) but I must say that the constant use of the F-word that pervades conversation and the written word in the UK these days shocks me. When I left the UK, 35 years ago, it was considered an extremely offensive word and was definitely not used by educated people and absolutely not by women. I really don't see the need to ever use it in postings on these boards. In what way does it add to the message? Personally, I DO think a certain amount of censorship would improve the quality of the forum. Sorry if this sounds a bit puritanical – I'm not religious or anything, just don't like to see the English language being debased. Rant over. :sofa:

[Gavin Yates]

John - one cannot "debase" the English language. It's a bastardisation of many different languages and dialects and is constantly evolving.

Yes there has been change in attitude to the use of inflamitory language during the last 35 years.

There has also been a change in attitudes to women, racism and ideas of class. Thanks God for that.

I try not to swear in front of children or others who I might easily offend but I am guilty of letting rip on occaison and don't beat myself up about it.

Let's move on and talk about something else. I bought a new hat today ....

[MATTBIN]

Odd really cos being two faced I swear like a trooper at work, (a very male orientated area) but I dont like to see it written on forums nor spoken in company, either mixed or I dont know extremely well. I would be shocked to hear a woman swear, especially if I didnt know her well.  There has been the occasional F word on here and some of its uses have had me in stitches and in the correct context I find it OK. However I think if we have a lot of diving kids accessing this site I would be happy if its use was censored. Fee - my boy dives and accesses this site and others - without our supervision, his computer is in his room. I sometimes check him, to date I have no reason to police him if I understand him correctly. I am not unhappy with what I have seen on here. I think its actually more damaging to see or read verbal abuse and attacks more than it is to see the odd swear word as it has a greater affect on his behaviour to others.
Matt

(Edited by MATTBIN at 4:41 pm on Feb. 2, 2003)

[Gavin Yates]

What about my hat - it's really nice and blue.

[Diving Dude]

Gavin.
Show me the hat in Lochaline.

[Phil Ennis]

I dont think that a few obscenities slung around on this forum is corrupting. I live next to a school and they walk past my house to the local shop and the language is quite spectacular. It does not offend me as attitudes have changed considerably. The main point is the when and where it is or is not acceptable and there comes the parental side.
The F word is very expressive, funny and of course offensive depending on the context, sh*t
I'm rambling, you get the idea. If anyone does not wish their children to view then any site can be barred with parental controls or whatever your ISP may call them.

Let's not start censoring, anyone else agree ?

(Edited by Phil Ennis at 7:29 pm on Feb. 2, 2003)

[John Gulliver]

Quote from Gav:
"John - one cannot "debase" the English language. It's a bastardisation of many different languages and dialects and is constantly evolving.
Yes there has been change in attitude to the use of inflamatory language during the last 35 years.
There has also been a change in attitudes to women, racism and ideas of class. Thank God for that."
An odd comparison, Gav, in my opinion. Do you really think that the widespread use of what used to be considered the coarsest of obscenities represents an advance in British civilisation? Anyway, I'm obviously alone on this, so I won't harp on about it, but it saddens me to hear my 18-year-old university student niece use a word that was formerly anathema in civilised circles. On a lighter note, it's interesting that words belonging to human sexuality are used as swearwords in anglosaxon countries, unlike in most other countries. Scandinavians think this is because anglosaxon societies are sexually repressed.




(Edited by John Gulliver at 9:03 pm on Feb. 2, 2003)

[Mr T.]

John,

You're opening subjects on which people write Doctorates!

Sorry to give everyone an impromptu history lesson, but until Victoria's reign, the 'English', as a nation (the Scots having been same since Wallace 1st bared his arse to Longshanks) were a very free and 'bawdy' people.

Read any poetry by Shelley or Byron, or any play by Webster or, indeed, the Diaries of Pepys, and you'll see that it took a certain 'type' or social pervasiveness (i.e. 'Victorian attitudes') to bring all that to a halt. More's the pity, as it stifled what existed naturally (a wonderfully varied and expressive tongue) in the populace and drove it underground, made it 'dirty' (a childish discription if e're I heard one) if you will, and resulted in what your Scando mates now perceive to be our sexual repression!

Now whether we as individuals think that to be for the better or worse is up to our own pallets; but I know I'm in favour of people keeping their own views on and levels of propriety to themselves. I'm glad that we can feel free to express ourselves in the vernacular for comic-effect or emphasis - I'm not advocating its wholesale use every other word.

Oh, and FYI, English is a genderless, non-inflected Indo-European language that has sucessfully 'magpied' from it's Romano-Greco and Germanic/Nordic roots and transmogrified itself rather successfully into that which we use (as do several billion other people)  today.

And lastly, the word 'F**k' is not Anglo-Saxon: it has its root in early lower Dutch. Its etymology is maritime - hence the phrase "He gave a typically 'Lower-decks' response".

Any chance we can get back to divng now?? Please??


(Edited by Bren Tierney at 8:47 pm on Feb. 2, 2003)