Is censorship neccessary?

Censorship refers to the process whereby the media or any other authority examines films, publications or letters, any form of media to suppress objectionable content, such as that of explicit, obscene, pornographic, or racially or politically sensitive issues, as they might cause unrest and negative effects on society, especially if these were exposed through the media or press. It is deemed neccessary for the prevention of conflict between groups of people, uprisings or even war, or tensions among the country, to safeguard government and national interests, protecting the young and weak-minded from harmful influences, as well as ensuring right messages get across to the minds of people.
Take a racially blended country such as singapore for instance, the small island comprises chinese, indians, malays as well as less significant groups such as eurasians or indonesians.
Such a nation without proper racial harmony preservation resembles a cauldron ready to implode any minute, as tensions build up to lead to conflicts among citizens, leading to lack of peace and security within singapore. Unfortunately, racial prejudices do occur, though not rampant in singapore, but nevertheless leads to racial strife among small parties. The government reacts appropriately by censoring incidents of such conflicts, which would spark off national racial conflicts off much larger proportions, further endangering the lives and property of the citizens. Censorship in this case acts like a shield in a forest that prevents fire from spreading, protecting security interests of people by sieving out racially sensitive issues or incidents, henceforth it is an effective measure to promote racial harmony.
The childhood of a person is when it acts most like a sponge, whereby the values and images he sees make a significant impact on his later life. This usually detemines his personality, apart from the genes of his parents, as well as his character and actions. Overexposure of explicitly violent and sexually-oriented images through the media might well persuade the young that all these are part and parcel of life, and from this spawns promiscuous activity, increased crime rate or murder, or even traumatisation due to blood and gore images from movies like SAW or even 300. Such symptoms of lack of censorship leads to social problems in society, such as the threatening of law and national security from increased crime rate, additionally changing the face of society with the wide influence of media, citizens become immoral, violent, and have little principles and values to speak of. Censorship prevents this by erecting a barrier between the weak-minded and young away from explicit images, texts and videos, protecting them from harmful influences on the mind.
Every government should have the best interests of the people at heart. Therefore, it is essential that they bring the correct political, social messages across to the people via the media. Censorship of external influences or media prevents ideas that are not in line with the government's plans for the people from reaching the latter, henceforth for the benefit of the people as well as by emphasizing the correct messages, the country, society and economy for functioning efficiently. For instance, by censoring smoking commercials, correct messages of health are brought across, with its absence, by restricting wrong messages of health.
On the other hand, censorship may be unneccessary in certain aspects of people's lives, or even to the extent of being detterent to the latter. Such instances include the lack of exposure retarding the growth of youngsters, as well as the need to practise self-censorship, both of which revolves about the need to have matured people in our society.
For instance, many people relate exposure to growth, knowledge and experience. For example, the more one travels, the more knowledge and experience one gathers, the more matured and learned one becomes, the more the growth. It is true to an extent that people need to be exposed to something in order to learn about it. Additionally, however, people are reckoned mature enough to practise self-censorship via religions like christianity, whereby the 'see no evil, hear no evil' saying is used to keep a person 'pure and untainted', or simply by the determination of one's mind to keep away from such influences.
Even so, i feel that censorship is needed nevertheless. We cannot assume all people as rational or mature people and henceforth, censorship is implemented to ensure the safety and security of all by protecting them against the harmful influences of the media, such as childen or the intellectually disabled.