Views about censorship versus age-appropriateness are often based on child development theories. According to Jean Piaget, a researcher in developmental psychology, growth of knowledge is progressive. Children do not reason or think in the same ways as adults. A young child uses a less developed form of logic. As the child matures, she uses a more advanced form of logic. Piaget has named four stages of cognitive development: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete, and formal operations. The age groups are general, and children progress through the stages at different rates.
In sensorimotor (from birth to two years) a child learns through movement. Thought comes from sensation and movement, what the child sees or feels, and learning is by trial and error. In the preoperational stage (from two to seven years) thought is ruled by how she wants them to be. The child does not understand cause and effect or other complex ideas. During the concrete stage (from seven to eleven years), a child starts to think abstractly, but thinking depends on concrete models. By formal operations (from twelve to sixteen years), the child has the ability to think hypothetically. She no longer needs concrete models on which to base judgments. For Piaget, a child develops moral judgment as her socializing moves from adult/child rules and authority interactions to peer-to-peer relationships.
While Piaget looked at moral development as part of the global child, domain theory separates mental and emotional understanding into various areas or domains. Domain theorists argue that very young children have the ability to distinguish the moral domain from the conventional (societal rules) domain. These researchers found that very young children consider transgressions of moral rules, for example-not hitting another person, worse than transgressions of conventional rules. (Nucci & Turiel, 1989). Therefore, children can distinguish right from wrong in these domains at a much earlier age, albeit not in a highly reasoned manner.
The social constructivist theorists say that children create meaning and develop knowledge as they interact with objects and people in their world (Montessori). The more children interact with their environments, the greater the growth in knowledge. Regardless of with which theory one agrees, the consensus is that young children do not reason at the same level as older children, who also do not reason in the same manner as adults. Another child development consideration is the emotional consequences. A topic or its presentation may affect a child emotionally. Information can cause needless worry about what is going to happen.