Friday's decision by the Broadcasting Commission to immediately ban all songs about daggering and all songs that have beeps from local radio and television stations, has received mixed reactions from the public.

While some believe that such a move was long overdue, there are others who think the move is somewhat hypocritical as controversial songs from other genres have remained untouched.

Poor parenting

Danila Thorpe, 25, told THE STAR that artistes should have the right to freely express themselves. She said deejays should not be held responsible for poor parenting and believes that the ban is not needed. "Parents should do more to monitor the things their kids watch and explain things to their kids. The state should not be undertaking this role. You can't control everything that is in society. Kids have to be exposed to both good and bad," she said. "Daggering is the least of our problems. It's just a cultural expression. If they want to protect our children, why don't they promote sex Ed? Banning it from radio and TV is not banning it from their ears."

Pique dem curiosity

Others, however, agree that songs of a certain nature should be banned and stay banned. Lucian Robertson* is one such person. She told THE STAR, "I agree 200 per cent. Kids don't need to be hearing that stuff. First of all, it only pique dem curiosity. You have five-year-olds and six-year-olds giving each other oral sex and daggering and all these things. It's not like seh is only grown folks know what the song talking bout. Di bleep ones deserve to be banned too because you can already infer what is under the bleep."

Tyria Moses* believes that the daggering debate is another example of the double standard approach that is taken to many things in society. She said, "It's foolishness, even though (my daughter) is singing the songs like it's something good, so I am kinda two-sided. But I have a problem with the double standard. What happen to the carnival songs? 'Two sapodilla and a nine-inch banana'? Society nah seh nutt'n bout dat?"