its a good scapegoat...

No problem with the Brigantes. Next.

If you don't like swearing you can f*ck off

Nice. You user name is very apt.

You can still have banter without swearing. Your assertion that swearing is necessary to have atmosphere is wide of the mark.

Clearly that's not what I'm saying, but well done for having a go.

The whole idea of finding words offensive is a bit of a mystery to me. Words are nothing but an arrangement of letters. If someone finds a word offensive then I'd think them a bit daft. The context can be offensive, but a word in itself? If someone says "what the f*** are you doing?" to someone it has the exact same meaning as "what on earth are you doing?" so why would someone be annoyed at the former and not the latter?
Besides, people choose what they find offensive. If someone is offended by swearing then they've decided to be and it's their own choice. The simple solution is just stop being offended by it. You're perfectly capable of doing so.

I can understand parents not wanting their kids to be around swearing and not wanting to start swearing because it's perceived as something bad and they might think it reflects badly on their kids or themselves.

Still, I can't help but think that if everyone just decided that words on their own aren't offensive and only the context could be offensive then things would be a lot simpler.

Massive irony fail on here. If I was being serious would I have bothered censoring the actual swear word?

So explain why swearing is banned on this forum then.

Because children use these forums, hold on......