MO Bill Proposes Parental Review Board for “Age-Inappropriate” Material

[GlennD]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

If this bill passes, that would mean that a lot of romance books would have to go and what about online services such as Overdrive? Does that mean that gets censored too?

Definitely. You'd have to figure out which romance imprints have the naughtiest bits and get rid of them. Maybe have a community bonfire and roast marshmallows.

I've noticed that motivated teens (ie, most of them?) can manage to find sexual content pretty easily. As has been mentioned, there are a couple of places on the interwebz that might have some....

I'm of the opinion that an adults only room is not a great option. Adults shouldn't have to worry about the local gossip seeing them walk into the 'sex room' in the library. Kind of like the curtained-off back room at the video rental store back in the day. That's almost just another kind of censorship.

[FizzyWater]

Originally Posted by GlennD

I'm of the opinion that an adults only room is not a great option. Adults shouldn't have to worry about the local gossip seeing them walk into the 'sex room' in the library. Kind of like the curtained-off back room at the video rental store back in the day. That's almost just another kind of censorship.

For what it's worth - my local library had an "adults only" section when I was a kid, back in the 60s. It's wasn't just for books with sexual content. It really was all adult-level fiction. (I don't remember where the non-fiction reference books were, but it's possible many were there, too).

I also don't remember how old I was before I could access that section, but I was 15 when we left that town, and I'd had access to the "adult" section long before that. I suspect it was more a case that if you could prove you would handle the library materials respectfully, you could go over there.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by GlennD

Adults shouldn't have to worry about the local gossip seeing them walk into the 'sex room' in the library.

I'll be waiting for some guy to walk out of the sex room with an unlit cigarette in his mouth and proclaim to everyone present: "that was great, I'm exhausted" and then leave

[maddz]

Like others here, I was reading exclusively in the adult section of my local library by the time I was 15. Our local library was a small branch and had a children's room and the main room. My reading age was well above my chronological age and the selection in the children's room was getting boring when I reached my teens.

A couple of times the librarian said she'd have to check with my mother before she'd let me check something out, but in general I was checking stuff out pretty freely. It helped there was nothing really objectionable - the dodgiest stuff I remember reading at that age was Sergeanne Golon and Frank Yerby. Most of the actual smut went over my head anyway (convent education) - or I dismissed it as more soppy stuff. I was around 15 when I came across D H Lawrence and that was because a school friend gave me a copy of Lady Chatterley and one of my great aunts caught me reading it.

[meeera]

Originally Posted by leebase

There is always censorship in libraries. Always. Would I think the librarian or the community representatives have that responsibility? I say the community representatives

Librarians have been absolutely central in the fight against censorship for a long time. It's a core value of their profession. Read this and the subsections.

http://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/librarybill

And this

https://www.ftrf.org/page/History

Why on earth anyone would prefer to outsource library materials selection from the relevant highly trained professionals to untrained "community" reps - who have, on the whole, volunteered to interfere because they are in favour of censorship - is beyond me.

[ekbell]

Originally Posted by FizzyWater

For what it's worth - my local library had an "adults only" section when I was a kid, back in the 60s. It's wasn't just for books with sexual content. It really was all adult-level fiction. (I don't remember where the non-fiction reference books were, but it's possible many were there, too).

I also don't remember how old I was before I could access that section, but I was 15 when we left that town, and I'd had access to the "adult" section long before that. I suspect it was more a case that if you could prove you would handle the library materials respectfully, you could go over there.

The local library where I grew up just needed parental permission for minors to use the adult's section which was where all non-juvenile books were located. I was somewhere around 12 when I asked and received permission to access the adult section.

Our current library doesn't segregate the adult's section in the same way but I can access the library accounts of all of my minor children and see what they've taken out. So I've now had a reason to discuss Lovecraft's racism with my teenage children (they've been reading a number of horror classics).

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by leebase

Or maybe the parent board in a highly wiccan community brings in material most other communities would not.

According to the bill, the board does not bring material in, it only throws it out. As far as I can see their only interaction with the library is:

The board may order any material deemed to be age-inappropriate sexual material to be removed from public access by minors at the public library.

(And I agree with those who wrote that in excluding "by minors", the original article was lying by omission.)

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by meeera

Librarians have been absolutely central in the fight against censorship for a long time. It's a core value of their profession. Read this and the subsections.

http://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/librarybill

And this

https://www.ftrf.org/page/History

Why on earth anyone would prefer to outsource library materials selection from the relevant highly trained professionals to untrained "community" reps - who have, on the whole, volunteered to interfere because they are in favour of censorship - is beyond me.

And I find the idea that "trained professionals" are better censors than "untrained community reps" highly annoying. Trained professionals have their own personal prejudices, sometimes instilled in them by their training. You can pound the table all you want about it's not a prejudice when it's my prejudice, but that doesn't make it true. Everyone has prejudices, things they favor over other things.

When I was a kid, there wasn't much SF&F in libraries because it wasn't "real literature". That's not the case anymore, but there are plenty of books out there that you likely will have trouble finding in most libraries simply because the Librarian Guild (TM) disagrees with what's in the books and thus puts them at the bottom of the list when deciding what books to buy with their limited resources.

[cfrizz]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

I'll be waiting for some guy to walk out of the sex room with an unlit cigarette in his mouth and proclaim to everyone present: "that was great, I'm exhausted" and then leave

You need to stop, I just blew my Jack Daniels Honey all over my monitor!

[Gardenman]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

I agree with him. I want to take my grandkids "to a library and make sure they’re in a safe environment, and that they’re not going to be exposed to something that is objectionable material." So I want all books and bibles about Christianity locked up in the same room with those "sex" books.

What say you, Rep Baker? Deal? If you don't want your kids exposed to sex until they're adults, then I don't want my grandkids exposed to religion until they're adults.

[Gardenman]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Agreed; this bill is a slippery slope waiting to be enacted into law. Today it's Playboy, tomorrow its any book that supports gay rights.

or if somebody does not like a book on global warming they will ban it too

[hildea]

Apart from everything else that's wrong with this proposal, the punishment is absurd. People make mistakes. It's hardly reasonable that librarians should risk a year in prison for misfiling a book. How many years in prison does this person advocate for people who get fooled by a false ID and accidentally sells alcohol to a minor?

Sending someone to prison for making a mistake at work is extremely harsh, unless we're talking gross negligence and extremely serious consequences. At least here in Norway, the typical punishment for violating this type of law would at most be a fine for the business or organization.

An obvious result of this kind of law would be that libraries would be reluctant to have any of the adults-only books in the shelves at all, since the potential result of making a mistake is so severe.

[issybird]

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[Richwood]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

I agree with him. I want to take my grandkids "to a library and make sure they’re in a safe environment, and that they’re not going to be exposed to something that is objectionable material." So I want all books and bibles about Christianity locked up in the same room with those "sex" books.

What say you, Rep Baker? Deal? If you don't want your kids exposed to sex until they're adults, then I don't want my grandkids exposed to religion until they're adults.

The old testament has lots of sex, violence and even incest as I recall from reading it years ago. Did not Lot's daughters get pregnant from him? Definitely only suitable for adults IMO. Mass murder of a whole population too. The same for some of the Indian religious books and such items as the Kama Sutra. IMO a very dumb proposed law and I can just see huge differences developing between libraries in different areas. A library in a liberal area could have very different standards of suitability from one in a more conservative area.

[Sarmat89]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

It was brought to court and the parents who waned the book banned lost.

That's why we need such practices, to protect the society from what is not prohibited by law.