[metmom]

Yeah, they worry about the kids "socialization". That's the point. Our local public library requires parental permission to use their computer. When I found out that there was NOTHING to block what they might be exposed to, I refused to sign. Told my kids they didn't need to use it that bad. At least, here in the small town we live in, the librarians were sympathetic and agreed but their hands are tied. There's nothing they can do about it. How hypocrital is the ALA anyway? Didn't we just have "Banned Books Week"?

[moog]

Most of the internet users I see at the library are unattended kids. Pornography is strictly forbidden there and I have seen a person or two kicked out for accessing it, but I have to wonder why so many kids are left on their own like that.

I took a look at some of the most requested books to be banned. I actually was surprised. I would have suspected some with more graphic content that are well known, but some of the ones listed didn't seem to be as graphic.

[moog]

Opting out a child from using a school library as suggested by the mom is an easy thing to do. My mom and dad kept close tabs on what we read and brought home. We never really had any problems. I have seen hundreds do the same.

[gingerky]

Oh, but there is something your public library can do about it. In the public library where I work, we have Internet filters because we receive a certain amount of federal funding. If a patron is over 18, they have the right to request that the filter be disabled. Some urban libraries, however, don't need federal funding so they don't have to filter - and to be honest some refuse the funding so they don't have to filter.

One incident in our library involved a teenage girl who checked out and read James Patterson's "Kiss the Girls". It has graphic sexual content, and as teenagers have been known to do, she passed the book around to her friends. One friend's mother got hold of the book and brought it back to the library, with an admonition that we somehow should "rate" the books. No thanks. Her issue should have been with the parent who allowed his child to check the book out and pass it around, not the public library. If the library were to bar kids from checking out adult fiction, that would also bar them from Twain, Orwell, Dickens, and Tolkien. There are no easy solutions.

Of course, in the public library setting it is easier to lay the responsibility on parents as to what their children check out; the parents can come in with the child if they so choose (most don't). This really wouldn't work in a school library.

That being said, my oldest son is an avid reader and I haven't placed to much restriction on his material. We actually discuss what he reads. One of his favorites is "The Chocolate War", which continuously tops the list of the ALA's most challenged books. I don't have a problem with that book, and I believe it is probably a fairly accurate description of some teenage boys' lives, cursing and fighting and all. My son commented that he hears worse at school every day.