Your kid's Kindle could be X-rated, child protection charity warns

[Pameliasue]

I'm not giving just anyone access to my child's mind and forming morals. And that is exactly what reading is. It is a meeting of minds over the medium of the written word. We have quite frank discussions with our son but it is us informing him not any sicko with the will to write a book.

Plus, the 'local library' has changed DRASTICALLY in the last 30 yrs.

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by HarryT

PEGI video game age ratings became legally enforced in the UK in July 2012. A shop can be fined for selling games to children younger than the age rating.

That is not the case in the US:
http://www.gamesradar.com/bill-would...-esrb-ratings/

[Kasper Hviid]

They were reading it on their mothers Kindle. The device was linked to the mother bank account, which enabled them to pay for it. So any safety precautions wouldn't matter much in this case.

Somehow I find it a bit worrying that what these girls have to strive for is to “become famous without even having a talent”.

[Pameliasue]

duplicate post*

[Namekuseijin]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Speaking from my own experience, a 13-year-old boy knows exactly what he wants to read and doesn't need to be monitored or have restrictions set. I certainly don't think I was "damaged" by having unrestricted access to my local library at 13.

OTOH, brutal, bizarre and downright disgusting sex acts even for the most open-minded are just one click away nowadays. Your kid doesn't have to dress like an adult with a fake moustache and enter some lousy underground movie theater anymore or even seek for it, just click on a link anonymously sent...

I do worry about my daughter and the savage internet landscape...

[Pameliasue]

I totally agree which is why his iPhone has the internet browser locked and he has to surf the web from home where we have OpenDNS filtering our home network access. He could still get into places he shouldn't because we only specifically have porn and pfishing sites locked down. It's a fine balance of letting them explore but protecting them from filth. The soaring rates of porn addiction in the young today sure can attest to unrestricted access to the WWW.

[doctorow]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

I don't know about games but MPAA ratings, for example, have no legal basis.

This is only because the MPAA is a private organization whose activities are not governed by any state or federal law. Nevertheless, there are laws regarding stores - and in particular online stores - selling adult movie content. Depending on where you live they are required to verify that the person making the purchase is of legal age:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pornography_by_region

and

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_s...et_pornography

Excerpt:

Many nations that allow at least some types of pornography attempt to ensure that those under their legal age for accessing porn (often 18 or 21) cannot easily access it. Various measures have been tried but with varying success. Within the United States, most websites have taken voluntary steps to ensure that visitors to their sites are not underage. Many Web sites provide a warning upon entry, warning minors and those not interested in viewing porn not to view the site, and requiring one to affirm that one is at least 18 and wishing to view pornographic content. Such warning pages have little effect in preventing access by minors to porn, as any minor interested in viewing the site can simply click on the “I am an adult over 18” button without having to prove his or her age. Thus, such warnings are generally not used by themselves but with other techniques. Commercial porn sites generally do not restrict access to any pornographic content until a membership has been purchased using a credit card, as most have explicit 'free trial' content as a major part of their sales strategy. So-called age verification services have also sprung up that offer access to any Web site that participates in their program without additional charge. The users need only verify their age with the verification service, which then issues a username and password that can access all sites that use its services. Most age verification sites charge either a monthly or yearly fee to those wanting access to participating sites.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by HarryT

The fact that this is a Kindle is totally irrelevant to this story. Exactly the same would be true with paper books bought from a traditional bookstore.

Ah but with a traditional bookstore (where you have to go physically to buy the book) you would have adult content segregated from where kids would be allowed to go. I remember some yrs ago (when I was under 18) a local video rental place had a section that was segregated from the rest of the store for 'adult' entertainment, and the owner made sure that no one under 18 was allowed to enter that section. Why don't stores like Amazon have a special 'adults only' section of the store that requires a separate password to access? That would solve the problem wouldn't it? Then if you are an adult you can access that section of the kindle bookstore, but if you want to get into that section and don't know the password for it you are turned away. That way kids kindles could be linked to the parents accounts (as some are) and yet the kids couldn't access the 18 yr + stuff.

[jgaiser]

Originally Posted by crich70

Ah but with a traditional bookstore (where you have to go physically to buy the book) you would have adult content segregated from where kids would be allowed to go.

Not in any bookstore I've ever been in. My bookstores are open to everyone and every age. Now.. There may be a clerk who might give you a hassle if you wanted to purchase something age-inappropriate, but then again maybe not.

[taming]

I don't want my 9 year old granddaughter exposed to some of the things easily found digitally, but I also remember taking my mom's copy of Harold Robbins' The Carpetbaggers when she and my dad were next door at the neighbour's house playing bridge.

From the Wikipedia entry on the book:

Murray Schumach's review in The New York Times on June 25, 1961 opens: "It was not quite proper to have printed The Carpetbaggers between covers of a book. It should have been inscribed on the walls of a public lavatory." He complains that the plot is merely "an excuse for a collection of monotonous episodes about normal and abnormal sex—and violence ranging from simple battery to gruesome varieties of murder.

And yes, I was 9.

[wawasteele]

Originally Posted by yhamm

Has anyone seen this article about a grandmother wanting to ban books from a public library because her grandson was able to borrow an "adult" book?

http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/20...tic-novel.html

I don't think the book should be banned. However, a 9 year old cannot buy a R rated movie ticket without a parent's approval, so why should a 9 yr old be allowed to check out a book that, if rated as a movie, would be an R? Why couldn't the library have an adult section, that you have to be a certain age before you can check out a book without parental consent?

I wish all books came with some kind of rating so I would know what I am getting without having to do as much research as I do. I don't generally care for books that have graphic violence or sex, but if I get one by mistake, I can skip pages or stop reading. It's very hard for me to get books for my 14 yr old granddaughter. I don't want to give her books with graphic violence or sex and without reading them myself, sometimes it's very hard to know for sure.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by jgaiser

Not in any bookstore I've ever been in. My bookstores are open to everyone and every age. Now.. There may be a clerk who might give you a hassle if you wanted to purchase something age-inappropriate, but then again maybe not.

Not many B&M bookstores I've been in sell X-Rated content. Maybe a few adult mags like Playboy, but most of the truly X-Rated stuff is sold in another type of store entirely at least around here. The one store I can remember that sold X-Rated stuff had a separate room for it and denied access to anyone under 18.

[Istvan diVega]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Speaking from my own experience, a 13-year-old boy knows exactly what he wants to read and doesn't need to be monitored or have restrictions set. I certainly don't think I was "damaged" by having unrestricted access to my local library at 13.

I couldn't agree more. Also, unless you're living in a closed community and are willing to put in place 1984-like controls on your kids, they're going to gain access to what they want in any case. What you're doing by attempting to control and restrict reading and internet habits is simply to make the proscribed things and activities that much more enticing.

[TuxGirl]

Mom let kids use kindle without parental controls restricting buying. Now she's complaining about what the kids got into.

Seriously, if they hadnt found the book, they probably would've found it on a website. They may have already found it on a website for that matter. This is a parenting issue, not a store issue.

And yes, I am a parent.

[FizzyWater]

I know my brothers and I came across the occasional X-rated book or magazine as kids. And I wasn't much older than 13 when my friends somehow got ahold of one of the "Penthouse Letters" volumes and we all giggled over it together.

I do think it's a lot easier today to get all kinds of stuff.

The problem I think we have, though, is people have different definitions of what should be labeled sex, violence, etc. This topic has come up in the past on various email lists/forums specifically about romance novels and romantic fiction (e.g., romantic suspense, which isn't really about the romance, but my also include one).

I'll admit - I wonder how parents today handle it. When I was young (oh, so many years ago) the big deal was whether a parent had the right to read a child's journal. Or search their room for naughty books or drug paraphernalia. I can't imagine today - do you confiscate their laptops or tablets? And what's to stop them from buying a $10 thumb drive or micro-SD card and keeping all the "good stuff" safely hidden away?