Interesting theory, Mike. But I actually wonder if there is such a service
regarding "adult" rating" and what it might mean. When I think of stuff
rated adult, for example, I tend to think of films that might get an X
rating or
more than one x, thus keeping people under 18 out of the theater. but
with a library, a kid can go in there and look in any section he or she
wants. Librarians can't censor what kids look at in the stacks, That's
their
parents job, if they feel so inclined and wish to enforce such rules. But
here, with the BookShare audience, they somehow feel compeled to do
parents' jobs for them and restrict access to the stacks, as it were. If a
library can't restrict which aisle of a library a 14-year-old walks down
and which books she picks off the shelf, why should BookShare? Why does
BookShare have more legal exposure in this regard than a library
would? But I do agree that it would be nice to take the matter of these
ratings out of the hands of people with vastly different standards or
those of the equally arbitrary "naughty word" checker. I wonder if
parents of
young people under 18 or the schools who get accounts for those young
people understand just how hit and miss this whole system is. You could
have an extremely conservative person who feels that just one or two
mild curse words are sufficient that a child shouldn't see the book, so
they call it adult and restrict access to anybody under 18. Or you could
have somebody who does not believe in such ratings and who would
never assign the rating no matter what the book's content. And there are
all shades in between.
Personally, I think the rating is far too broad, treating kindergarteners
the same as high school seniors, with respect to the material that they
can have access to. Maybe what they should have done is have a special
kids rating that could be put on books intended for kids elementary level
or younger, rather than trying to define what "adult" means. But that
didn't happen.
Mary
