CENSORSHIP!is it really necessary?

Censorship-what are the merits and demerits and is it really that neccesary?
In my view, there are both sides of a coin to censorship, there are definitely some pros and some cons. However, if we want to have a more open society, then i feel that censorship is not that necessary.
First of all, what is censorship? To me, censorship is like a sift, and it only allows morally correct issues to be sieved through and others to be hidden from the general public. One might ask- where is the freedom that we deserve? I feel that the general public should have a certain amount of freedom, and this includes our right of knowing the truth. If the government and media were to hide some issues and information, then our freedom is lost! In actual fact, less censorship would equate to more learning taking place. If there wasn't a barrier to taboo issues, both students and adults can broaden their horizons on such issues and gain more knowledge in the process. We would be able to handle these topics better as we already have prior knowledge about them. Also, transparency is crucial for people to trust their government. By reducing or taking away censorship, learning about taboo issues would not have to be done behind closed doors anymore. We can be more open and thus accept each other better. In Singapore, the young children and youth are really sheltered, and they are not getting enough exposure to the real world. By removing censorship, we can educate them and demystify certain taboo topics to them while they are still young and innocent. This is to allow them to be better and more knowledgeable people when they are older. By shielding them from topics like sex, religion, race etcetera, they will be ignorant and insensitive towards these issues when they grow up as they have not had enough chances to dicuss about their views and what others think about it. Ignorance is also a bad thing as people will be fearful to talk about these topics. And if they do talk about it, they might say soemthing insensitive and hurt the other party, thus resulting in chaos and paranoia.
Conversely, censorship will provide protection- for the people and for national security. Holding back certain information will definitely prevent conflicts as people will not get insulted so easily. Also, negative influence to children and youths will be prevented. As children and youths watch television very often, they are often affected by what they see or hear on screen. Censorship will thus help to uphold values that the individuals initially believe in.
To me, i feel that censorship is not that necessary. If there is something that the public should not see, it should be explained out in the open and not kept in the dark. This will definitely allow the government to gain trust from the people. If we want transparency, freedom, the right to know the truth and more education, then censorship is really NOT neccesary!