Quote:
Originally Posted by fjtorres
A given: censorship isn't good.
Also: This is an extreme reaction but it is a reaction to an issue that keeps cropping up: parental controls.
The issue is twofold: first thing is, most forms of information and entertainment have parental controls. TVs, gaming consoles, phones, PCs, browsers, Kindles (and Kobos, I assume) all offer parents tools to manage content they deem appropriate for *their* kids. Libraries don't. Parents are expected to trust librarians and libraries.
And the second thing is, many people no longer trust *any* institutions to align with their interests. That is, increasingly, including libraries. A great many things that used to be locally controlled are being overidden by "higher" principles and levels of government (the federalization and homogenization of almost everything).
This is in line with the never-ending debates over sex education, school curricula, and the general culture wars. Look at the location: not California, Not New York, not the deep south.
It's not black and white on either end.
But if the camps do the usual and dig in and resort to the usual demonization of opponents instead of recognizing the real issue, nothing good will come of this. Because libraries are locally funded and if communities start seeing them as unresponsive to local mores, they'll start getting unresponsive come funding time.
This is just round one.
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For the most part, I agree with this.
Frankly, this sort of thing could be handled fairly easily by showing a bit of common sense. Stick "inappropriate" material in a room that under aged kids can only enter with parents permission. There, problem solved. If parents want their kids to read the stuff, they can. If parents don't want their kids to read the stuff, they can't. But of course, everyone wants to force their personal choice on everyone else.