Fogging, also known as blurring, is used for censorship or privacy. A visual area of a picture or movie is blurred to obscure it from sight. This form of

censorship Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governmen ...

is used for sexually related images/scenes, hiding

genitals A sex organ, also known as a reproductive organ, is a part of an organism that is involved in sexual reproduction. Sex organs constitute the primary sex characteristics of an organism. Sex organs are responsible for producing and transporting ...

pubic hair Pubic hair (or pubes , ) is terminal hair, terminal body hair that is found in the sex organ, genital area and pubic region of adolescent and adult humans. The hair is located on and around the sex organs, and sometimes at the top of the inside ...

buttocks The buttocks (: buttock) are two rounded portions of the exterior anatomy of most mammals, located on the posterior of the pelvic region. In humans, the buttocks are located between the lower back and the perineum. They are composed of a lay ...

, female

nipple The nipple is a raised region of tissue on the surface of the breast from which, in lactating females, breast milk, milk from the mammary gland leaves the body through the lactiferous ducts to Breastfeeding, nurse an infant. The milk can flow th ...

breast The breasts are two prominences located on the upper ventral region of the torso among humans and other primates. Both sexes develop breasts from the same embryology, embryological tissues. The relative size and development of the breasts is ...

s, or

sexual activity Human sexual activity, human sexual practice or human sexual behaviour is the manner in which humans experience and express their sexuality. People engage in a variety of sexual acts, ranging from activities done alone (e.g., masturbation) t ...

of any sort.

Pixelization Pixelization (in British English pixelisation) or mosaic processing is any technique used in editing images or video, whereby an image is blurred by displaying part or all of it at a markedly lower resolution. It is primarily used for censorshi ...

is a form of fogging. In

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

, where it is called , fogging is employed on most films aired on public television that feature adult content of any kind. This form of editing also appears in television programs where an individual's face may not be shown due to legal or privacy concerns. As it does not contrast with the surrounding image very much, it is arguably preferable over most other forms of censorship. However, unlike other forms of visual censoring, it does not allow the preservation of any information about the original stimulus. Fogging is also used if a scene is too bloody and gruesome to be rendered even in black and white, as well as on vehicle license plates (to protect the identity of a vehicle's owner), and over branded items and specific company names. Although it is generally effective for obscuring details from the naked eye, fogging is not a sure method of removing information from images, as it is often possible to recover at least some information using blind deconvolution techniques.

References

* Censorship Self-censorship {{porn-stub