It is almost impossible to find new TV programs and films from the west that have no expletives, irrespective of the age restrictions applied by their distributors ('old' British Board of Film Censors style.) Over the years, it has led to the huge increase in kids of all ages indiscriminately using foul language in public. Back in the day, while schoolkids certainly used foul language, they mostly did so out of the hearing of their parents and teachers. Those who didn't were educated in the art of receiving punishment.
Literacy is a gift, a reward for reading good literature. As movies and 'sensationalist' TV has spread, literacy has diminished in inverse proportion. I'm all for freedom of expression as opposed to subjecting all and sundry to the censor's red pen. On the other hand, hearing kids up to the age of 100 years in the UK - or elsewhere - who seem unable to form sentences without inserting expletives to emphasise their illiteracy.
As a kid, I never swore in front of my parents, grandparents, teachers, etc., on pain of a clip round the ear or equivalent. I find, still, that it is not necessary to insert foul or abusive language to communicate, any more than it is necessary to shoot innocents to demonstrate one's lunacy.
It appears that society insists on being progressive, suggesting that the present is better than the past in many ways. During my lifetime, crimes have become more difficult to prevent and even more difficult to solve as the Authorities have - unbelievably in many cases - allowed them to be 'overlooked' on the pretext of that reducing the cost of policing. In the real world, the cost of those crimes still has to be paid for, one way or another, and allowing a crime to go unpunished is the easiest way of ensuring that it will be committed again. Decriminalising is in many respects a admission that Authorities can no longer do their jobs properly. The failure started somewhere - maybe as basic as failing to recognise that the adage 'look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves' applies just as much to crime prevention and promoting decent behaviour in society as it does to encourage kids to save for that rainy day.
Keep the bad words list. That way they will never become good words.