Thank you, Mary. Your reading experience as a teenager sounds a lot like
mine--I was allowed to make my own decisions, with the understanding that
there was a certain degree of parental supervision happening.
Could we have some administrative input on exactly what is meant by
"adult"? I have a pretty clear idea of what the automated checker is
looking for, but by adult do we mean books with possibly inappropriate
topics, or books which, as Mary says, are clearly 'adult' in nature? These
are two different things, and controlling the former is a lot more
troubling than controlling the latter.
I like your point about public libraries, Mary. I obviously don't use print
libraries very often, but I do know from my own experiences and asking
around that minors are generally allowed to check out anything they please
from a public library provided they have a card, whether the material is
set aside in an adult section or not.
skp At 02:53 PM 1/17/2005, you wrote:
Yes, parents can choose to let their kids see all content. The problem is, we're taking a meat cleaver approach to something that requires finer gradations. If I had teen-aged kids, I'd pretty much let them see most any
book in the collection. But there are some exceptions, the kind of thing that really would be in an adult book store or video section, the kind of stuff that Gustavo once said is what was being referred to with the
concept of "adult". I know when I was a kid, my mom didn't have a "juvenile books" only policy with regard to what I selected to order from the Talking Books program. Of course, they didn't and still don't, produce
much of anything in that really "adult" category. But she was aware of what books I was getting and, I'm sure would have had something to say had I wanted one she felt was not age appropriate. It seems to me that
a more flexible policy with respect to the matter of adult books would be to let kids see all titles, but still keep the adult flag in place for downloading, unless the parent gives permission. It would clearly require some
changes on the bookshare side. But it would be more equivalent to what print book readers have now in public libraries, where they are not restricted to certain areas of the library. I just really object to kids not even
being able to know that a given book is in the collection. Seems to me this system either takes any control away from parents by having them say a blanket yes to all books, or is entirely too restrictive, by not letting
kids even know certain books exist and then letting them and their parents decide whether a particular title is appropriate for that child.
mary
Gently they go, the beautiful, the tender, the kind; Quietly they go, the intelligent, the witty, the brave. I know. But I do not approve. And I am not resigned.
-- 'Dirge Without Music', Edna St. Vincent Millay
