Censorship: IELTS Writing Task 2 Essay

Today, we are going to look at a sample band 9 answer to a question about censorship.

Analysing the Question

Here is our question for today:

Some people say that there is too much harmful content on the internet. They say the only way to make the internet safe is for the government to censor the content of websites.

To what extent do you think the government should control what information is available on the internet?

Ok, so what exactly does this question want us to do?

Do not focus too much on the first part. Instead, look closely at the question beginning “To what extent…” Basically, we are required to answer that. This will involve saying one of the following:

• Governments should heavily censor the internet.
• Governments should implement some minor censorship.
• Governments should not censor the internet.

The choice is yours but in my essay, I will go for the middle option because I want to say that governments generally should not censor the internet but I recognise that there are some extreme instances where censorship may be necessary.

Language

When it comes to this essay, you will need language related to the following:

• Technology
• Governments and legal issues
• Media
• Censorship

I’ve covered the others elsewhere but today I’ll focus on censorship.

First, let’s look at the main word and some related forms:

Censorship	Noun	The act of supressing something.
Censor	Noun	A person who censors something.
Censor	Verb	To suppress something due to it being considered unacceptable.
Censorious	Adjective	To be very critical. (Note: This is a similar word but its meaning differs from the others, so it is unlikely to be useful in today’s essay.

Now, let’s look at some other useful words and phrases.

The following are loosely synonyms of “to censor”:

• block access to (something)
• delete (something)
• prevent (someone) from seeing (something)
• prohibit (someone) from seeing (something)
• restrict access to (something)

Note that to censor and to delete are different, but contextually something could be deleted from the internet, which could be a form of censorship, so I have included it here.

Other useful language includes:

• content
• disinformation
• freedom of expression
• freedom of speech
• misinformation
• national security
• public safety
• spread information
• tackle (a problem)
• the right to express oneself

Sample Answer

Since the advent of the internet, governments have sought to control what people can and cannot see. Different governments take different approaches to this but all censor to some extent. This essay will argue that a limited amount of censorship is reasonable provided that people are told what they have been prevented from viewing.

To begin with, it should be noted that censorship is often considered negative and for good reason. A major argument says that people should have free access to information so that they can make their own decisions and it can easily be seen that certain governments use censorship to manipulate their populations and maintain power. For example, China carefully deletes anything about Chinese history that contradicts the present government’s stance and they block access to most of the internet in order to keep people ignorant about important moments in national and international history. They claim this is for public safety but it is clear that they delude people in order to stay in power.

On the other hand, it is hard to deny that certain content should be restricted. Few could argue that bomb-making instructions and child pornography should be banned in order to avoid catastrophic harm. Perhaps these are extreme examples but the majority of people understand that those things ought to be hidden and, if possible, deleted. Other more contentious content perhaps should be censored as well. There are online hate groups that attempt to spread violence as well as disinformation campaigns by hostile entities such as the Russian government. Although some would no doubt debate whether censoring this is a good idea, the harm it causes is hard to deny and governments would be justified in tackling it.

In conclusion, although censorship sounds bad and generally should not be used too much, it is definitely important in some cases and governments should make efforts to delete certain particularly dangerous internet content.

Notes on the Answer

Please pay attention to my structure here:

1. Introduction gives position (mostly agree)
2. Para 2 explains why censorship is mostly bad
3. Para 3 explains why censorship is sometimes needed
4. Conclusion summarises it

I have given my ideas clearly and developed them fully. My examples are appropriate and vivid.

In terms of language, I have used topic-specific vocabulary and a range of grammatical structures. Everything in this essay is at a band 9 level.