MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Should e-Books be Rated (like movies and video games)?

Nergal · 12-28-2008, 11:08 AM

I voted 'Other' because I think books should be rated, but not by a institution paid by publishers or government - if on free terms or forced. This is the task of parents, grandparents, teachers and every member of the society, booksellers as buyers to prevent children or adolescents from reading content not designed for their state of maturity. When I started reading books beyond real childrens stories for beginners I had an enourmous variety. But very early I fell in love with Greek, Roman, and Northern Mythology as with the Lord of the Rings and all about that. So for an 8-10 year old boy the stuff is pretty tough - it is bloody, cruel and not at all designed for a child's mind. But I could cope with it, maybe I accepted it being fantastic. But I'm pretty sure that to some children this stuff would be pure horror.
There are no strict rating systems in Germany, so I never had to ask for what I might read and what not.

All this regulating of culture freezes a living progress of our civilization and society. Maybe the Iliad of Homer would be considered as appropriate from age of 16 or elder, because of its brutality. But isn't that too simple thought. I think some readers would be disgusted by its bloodshed and have nightmares even at the age of 60.

I think it is the first task of the parents to know what a child reads to understand what it asks or fears or admires. It would make it too easy to classify literature. Children are not at the same maturity with the age of 12 or share the same fears. All readers are individual human beings, not machines.

I use now a very harsh German word for what this partly leads to in my opinion: 'Gleichschaltung'. Not in the special historical sense it is sometimes meant, but a in a meaning of narrowing the possibilities of creativity and how creative output of the one may be consumed by the other.

And I think this fits for everything: movies, books, pictures, music - art in general.

12-28-2008, 11:08 AM	#7
Nergal eBuchReisender Posts: 41 Karma: 208 Join Date: May 2008 Location: Münster Device: Palm Tungsten-E, iLiad	I voted 'Other' because I think books should be rated, but not by a institution paid by publishers or government - if on free terms or forced. This is the task of parents, grandparents, teachers and every member of the society, booksellers as buyers to prevent children or adolescents from reading content not designed for their state of maturity. When I started reading books beyond real childrens stories for beginners I had an enourmous variety. But very early I fell in love with Greek, Roman, and Northern Mythology as with the Lord of the Rings and all about that. So for an 8-10 year old boy the stuff is pretty tough - it is bloody, cruel and not at all designed for a child's mind. But I could cope with it, maybe I accepted it being fantastic. But I'm pretty sure that to some children this stuff would be pure horror. There are no strict rating systems in Germany, so I never had to ask for what I might read and what not. All this regulating of culture freezes a living progress of our civilization and society. Maybe the Iliad of Homer would be considered as appropriate from age of 16 or elder, because of its brutality. But isn't that too simple thought. I think some readers would be disgusted by its bloodshed and have nightmares even at the age of 60. I think it is the first task of the parents to know what a child reads to understand what it asks or fears or admires. It would make it too easy to classify literature. Children are not at the same maturity with the age of 12 or share the same fears. All readers are individual human beings, not machines. I use now a very harsh German word for what this partly leads to in my opinion: 'Gleichschaltung'. Not in the special historical sense it is sometimes meant, but a in a meaning of narrowing the possibilities of creativity and how creative output of the one may be consumed by the other. And I think this fits for everything: movies, books, pictures, music - art in general.