North America

Canada's censorship standards are very similar to, and a bit more lenient than those of the United States. Canada has a fairly more liberal attitude regarding sexual content than the U.S., with similar views regarding violence. Canada sets the period of "the watershed" (9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.) where adult oriented programming is not allowed, although material parents may considered objectionable is aired. T.V. stations are still required to warn viewers of what is to come during this period, despite the arrangement. During the post watershed period, censorship is much more relaxed.

Regarding radio, although DJs are not allowed to swear, songs are not edited for radio play. Overall, Canadians are more sensitive to racism and sexism than violence, language, or sexual content.

Under the Children's Internet Protection Act, schools are required to use Internet filtering software. Studies conducted using various filtering software programs found that the vast majority of blocked content related to the class curriculum was overblocked. This means that the blocked content did not fit any of the software's filtering criteria, but were still blocked under those criteria.

Although free speech is protected very well in the U.S., the definition of obscenity is often subject to debate, which often leads to efforts to prevent obscenity being too strict. For example, until video games were ruled to be a fine art under the first amendment, many states had strict legislation regarding the sale of these games.

Some censorship in the U.S. takes place at the state level. For example, although no books are banned under federal law, several states and cities have lists of books banned in schools. Federal censorship of T.V. and radio is enforced by the F.C.C. Television and radio stations that broadcast certain words or content can be punished by this organization and possibly have their licenses revoked. Satellite Radio, Cable Television, and the Internet are not subject to censorship by the F.C.C.