Television censorship is the censorship of television content, either through the excising of certain frames or scenes, or outright banning of televisions in their entirety. Television censorship typically occurs as a result of political or moral objections to a television's content; controversial content subject to censorship include the depiction of graphic violence, sexual situations, or racial themes. Censorship standards vary widely by country, and can vary within an individual country over time.
A Television content rating system is designated to classify television with regard to suitability for audiences in terms of issues such as sex, violence, substance abuse, profanity, impudence or other types of obscene content. A particular issued rating can be called a certification, classification, certificate.
The Chinese government has repeatedly censored anime shows that the country considers immoral, especially those that include bloody and violent scenes. Blood-C, a Japanese anime television series, has been banned since it includes a "particularly bloody" scene which may cause "extreme discomfort".[1] In 2021, China announced to ban violent, vulgar, and bloody children's TV shows. A statement released by the National Radio and Television Administration said that "the content of broadcasts should be healthy and progressive and should promote truth, good, and beauty in cartoons".[2]
The battle part of first episode of the eighth season of Game of Thrones is cut in China.[3]
Many countries have government-appointed or private commissions to censor and rate productions for film and television exhibition. While it is common for television (including episodes) to be edited to fall into certain rating classifications, this list includes only television that have been explicitly prohibited from public screening. In some countries, television are banned on a wide scale; these are not listed in this table.
On 4 January 2023, the Australian Classification Board refused classification for How Not to Summon a Demon Lord Ω but did not provide a reason, thus banning the series from being sold, hired, advertised or imported to Australia, despite being available for streaming.[5][6]
After the episode Band in China aired in Hong Kong, the series was completely banned from deleting all Chinese websites that they were apologizing to their series.[12][13][14]
Banned on the grounds of sexual exploitation of children. The OFLC stated in their report publications were banned if containing what the board felt was "to reinforce the notion that young persons are sexually desirable and available".[32]
On January 11, 2009, after the series aired Kids Station in Japan, the series was completely banned in South Korea due to appearing Korean characters.[51][52]
^Loveridge, Lynzee (February 3, 2020). "My Hero Academia Character Gets Name Change Following Controversy". Anime News Network. Archived from the original on June 20, 2023. Retrieved February 4, 2020. The character's original given name was revealed in chapter 259 as "Maruta Shiga." "Maruta" refers to the code-name for human experimentation undertaken by the Imperial Japanese Army's Unit 731 during the Second Sino-Japanese War of World War II. The Chinese victims of the experiments were called "maruta," the Japanese word for "logs" as a reference to the facilities cover story that it was a lumber mill. Victims, including children, the elderly, pregnant women, and the mentally handicapped, were purposefully infected with diseases, dissected, lobotomized, and amputated while still alive.
^Loveridge, Lynzee (February 5, 2020). "My Hero Academia Manga, Anime Removed from Chinese Digital Platforms". Anime News Network. Archived from the original on February 6, 2020. Retrieved February 7, 2020. The manga character's name reopening wounds in China and Korea that lead to the series' manga and anime being pulled from bilibili and Tencent and the possible cancellation of the mobile game My Hero Academia: Strongest Hero by Chinese studio Xin Yuan.
^Loveridge, Lynzee (February 10, 2020). "My Hero Academia Manga Updated With Villain's New Name". Anime News Network. Archived from the original on June 2, 2022. Retrieved February 11, 2020. The character's real name was changed to Kyudai Garaki in the update. The new name maintains elements from creator Kōhei Horikoshi's original name; "Kyudai" is written with the kanji for "ball" and "big" and "Garaki" takes the last three syllables of the villain's mentor's name "Shigaraki" while also including the kanji for "tree."
^"Annual Report 2014"(PDF). Office of Film and Literature Classification. June 30, 2014. p. 4 (Our Vision), 9 (Discussion of Outcome and Outputs), 12 (DVD: High School DXD Series Collection Disc 1: Classified Objectionable). Archived from the original(PDF) on 2015-09-23. Retrieved 2015-08-29.