Public Library Votes To Restrict Books

[ChrisC]

Thought this might be of interest to some of you. A public library in Kansas (surprise) is has voted to restrict access to 4 books about sex (surprise) because someone complained that they're harmful to minors (surprise).

The Joy Of Sex ruined my life! :rolleyes:

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2009/02/20/america/NA-US-Library-Sex-Books.php

http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6638876.html?industryid=47105

[Tsukasa Buddha]

People other than minors read those?

If you gave those parents a vote to give their kids sex ed or give them one of those books, the library would have to order fifty more copies.

[ParrotPirate]

Christo-nazi paranoid loons.

[MattusMaximus]

Call the ACLU.

[Travis]

Heaven forbid a 12 year old see a naked person. It'd turn them into a serial killer I bet.:rolleyes:

[dudalb]

Like most 12 year olds have not manages to peek into daddy's copy of Playboy or those movies he keeps in a drawer.....

[Safe-Keeper]

This reflects the disturbing trend in the West that violence is totally OK and healthy for young kids to be exposed to, while nudity somehow is horrific and potentially scarring.

I like to ask this question whenever this is brought up: let's say you're walking home with your six year old daughter. You've got two paths to follow - one leads past a nude beach which has a bit of a shady reputation at night time. The kid will definitely see nude people, and potentially even someone having sex. The second path leads through a run-down neighborhood where she will see fights, and perhaps even a robbery, attempted rape, gunfight or other serious incident of violence.

Which path do you choose?

[Louisthe13th]

This happened here in Helena Montana recently. A local christo saw "The Joy of Gay Sex"- never checked out the book but asked it to be banned. It went through a lot meetings- my wife and I wrote letters stating that we have 3 kids that use the library often and we supported the library decision to keep the book on the shelves.

Kudos to our librarians- the book is available.

[Safe-Keeper]

I understand the sentiments - the titles make the books sound rather pornographic - but without having read them, I can't comment.

As long as libraries carry Stephen King and the Bible, they can carry just about anything.

People other than minors read those?Triple :D with sour cream and garlic.

Yahtzee, the maker of the Zero Punctuation (http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation) reviews, said the same thing about the Hitman games - that it was kind of pointless to restrict young teen boys from playing them when they were pretty much the only ones immature enough to want to play them.

[Checkmite]

Yahtzee, the maker of the Zero Punctuation (http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation) reviews, said the same thing about the Hitman games - that it was kind of pointless to restrict young teen boys from playing them when they were pretty much the only ones immature enough to want to play them.

Wow, he kinda nailed it there.

[Richard Masters]

This reflects the disturbing trend in the West that violence is totally OK and healthy for young kids to be exposed to, while nudity somehow is horrific and potentially scarring.

I like to ask this question whenever this is brought up: let's say you're walking home with your six year old daughter. You've got two paths to follow - one leads past a nude beach which has a bit of a shady reputation at night time. The kid will definitely see nude people, and potentially even someone having sex. The second path leads through a run-down neighborhood where she will see fights, and perhaps even a robbery, attempted rape, gunfight or other serious incident of violence.

Which path do you choose?

In the first, you can prebrief and debrief your child. In the second, you can only debrief your child if she doesn't die.

I think my answer has less to do with morality than with actual short-term safety; but I get a sense of what you are getting at with your thought-experiment.

[ChrisC]

Sort of related: Freedom To Read Week starts today in Canada.
http://www.freedomtoread.ca/

Make sure your racy books are well hidden by the 29th! :D

[Ove]

This reflects the disturbing trend in the West that violence is totally OK and healthy for young kids to be exposed to, while nudity somehow is horrific and potentially scarring.

I like to ask this question whenever this is brought up: let's say you're walking home with your six year old daughter. You've got two paths to follow - one leads past a nude beach which has a bit of a shady reputation at night time. The kid will definitely see nude people, and potentially even someone having sex. The second path leads through a run-down neighborhood where she will see fights, and perhaps even a robbery, attempted rape, gunfight or other serious incident of violence.

Which path do you choose?

This american obsession with the naked body is (fortunately) something we nordic people will NEVER understand. I would off course choose the first path, actually i do that every summer here in Denmark. ;)

[Kotatsu]

This american obsession with the naked body is (fortunately) something we nordic people will NEVER understand. I would off course choose the first path, actually i do that every summer here in Denmark. ;)

I am a birdwatcher on the West Coast of Sweden. At least two famous birdwatching locations here (Stora Amundön and Getterön) are also nude beaches. I will refrain from connecting any dots.

[geni]

Restricting access to stuff is fairly common. Try takeing a photo in a UK county records office (or try being under about 40 but I don't think that is deliberate).

[Psi Baba]

If this Kim Borchers thinks the books are "harmful to minors" she should be required to prove it by providing data as to how many minors have actually been harmed by the materials and in what way they have been harmed. Merely saying it doesn't make it so.

[geni]

If this Kim Borchers thinks the books are "harmful to minors" she should be required to prove it by providing data as to how many minors have actually been harmed by the materials and in what way they have been harmed. Merely saying it doesn't make it so.

How many minors have actually been been harmed by Chlorine trifluoride? Merely saying it is harmful to minors doesn't make it so.

[Ove]

I am a birdwatcher on the West Coast of Sweden. At least two famous birdwatching locations here (Stora Amundön and Getterön) are also nude beaches. I will refrain from connecting any dots.

Nice place to be in a camoufalged tent with a big tele lens ehh? :D

[Morrigan]

Like most 12 year olds have not managed to peek into daddy's copy of Playboy or those movies he keeps in a drawer. download porn on peer-to-peer network....
;)

[ponderingturtle]

Heaven forbid a 12 year old see a naked person. It'd turn them into a serial killer I bet.:rolleyes:

Wait a few more years, and think of the rash of serial killers the internet will have made.

[Travis]

My dad worked in a high school for forty years and it was his experience that a parents greatest fear was that their teenager was having sex. He had stumbled upon many a teenage couple in the act of coitus during his time there and he eventually learned that he could tell a parent their kid was helping to beat up another kid and they wouldn't freak out the way they would if they were informed their kid was having sex. They literally would rather have their child committing acts of violence than getting laid.

[FramerDave]

This reflects the disturbing trend in the West that violence is totally OK and healthy for young kids to be exposed to, while nudity somehow is horrific and potentially scarring.

I like to ask this question whenever this is brought up: let's say you're walking home with your six year old daughter. You've got two paths to follow - one leads past a nude beach which has a bit of a shady reputation at night time. The kid will definitely see nude people, and potentially even someone having sex. The second path leads through a run-down neighborhood where she will see fights, and perhaps even a robbery, attempted rape, gunfight or other serious incident of violence.

Which path do you choose?

If it's sex or violence on TV, turn it off or change the channel. If it's sex or violence in books, don't read them. If it's sex or violence on the beach, don't walk that way.

Parents who are so incredibly paranoid that their child will be corrupted are terribly insecure in their own skills as parents. When I came out to my father and stepmother, their first thought was that my boyfriend at the time, who I had known in a different capacity (for lack of a better word) for about a year before had "corrupted" me. I reminded them that they had done a better job as parents than that, and that one person in a short amount of time could not have changed me so much, and "turned" me.

[Psi Baba]

How many minors have actually been been harmed by Chlorine trifluoride? Merely saying it is harmful to minors doesn't make it so.
You're talking about a substance that is already known to be poisonous to human beings and hazardous in other ways as well. Those facts are known due to science, not because someone simply said it's dangerous. Just because one person finds offense with a few particular books or books and declares them "harmful to minors" doesn't make that a fact. Your analogy would mean that you can determine a chemical to be dangerous because you don't like the way the name sounds.

[Lonewulf]

How many minors have actually been been harmed by Chlorine trifluoride? Merely saying it is harmful to minors doesn't make it so.

And think of all of the children exposed to Dihydrogen Monoxide! THE HORROR! THE CHILDREN, THINK OF THE CHILDREN!








I ban Dihydrogen Monoxide in my house, and all Dihydrogen Monoxide-based products. Unfortunately, the children were so addicted, they died from Dihydrogen Monoxide withdrawal. :(

[Mache]

The article mentions that these books would be "considered obscene under a law against promoting obscenity to minors"

The only sex that should be considered obscene is perverted variations which cause harm to at least one of the participants. That's just the problem though - somehow these people think that these books on how to have healthy sex are harmful to their children.

I think it would be interesting now to discuss if/why sexual repression is harmful to children.

[Ove]

The article mentions that these books would be "considered obscene under a law against promoting obscenity to minors"

The only sex that should be considered obscene is perverted variations which cause harm to at least one of the participants. That's just the problem though - somehow these people think that these books on how to have healthy sex are harmful to their children.

I think it would be interesting now to discuss if/why sexual repression is harmful to children.

Well your "nearly vice-president" gave a stunning example on how it goes when you replace sex-ed with "dont do anything dirty".... ;)

[Lonewulf]

The only sex that should be considered obscene is perverted variations which cause harm to at least one of the participants.

Oh crap. I'm obscene. D: