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Frequently Asked Questions – Book Challenges

Below are answers to many of the complaints I hear with regards to parents challenging books in public school libraries.  

Question:

Kids can get sexualized content anywhere these days.  Books aren’t the problem.  What does it matter if we provide it to them in books if they can get “worse” content elsewhere?

Answer:

a) While children can get it elsewhere, many choose to purposefully not seek out such content.  With most of these books, you do not know you are going to exposed to sexual content until you get to that content.  Explicit sexual content can be found in various sections of the libraries such as Young Adult fiction, fantasy, historical fiction, poetry, memoirs, etc.  There is not a section of the library for books containing "sexually explicit" content nor is there a content warning or rating system on books.

b) If schools knowingly provide explicit sexualized content to students, they are condoning them consuming it.  Even if they aren’t encouraging it, by providing it schools are saying they don’t think it is harmful for them to consume.  One would hope a school would not knowingly provide content that they believe to be harmful to a minor.

c) I would argue that the content students find in these books is sometimes worse than what they find online, depending on how their imagination connects with reading.  For instance, online visuals will be more impactful to a visual learner but reading explicit details with characters who have “come alive” in their imaginations may give more explicit detail and make more of a connection that what they see online. 

Question:

Parents should be monitoring what their kids consume, including books.

Answer:

a) True, but with many of these books there is no indication that it contains sexually explicit content until you are reading it.  Common Sense Media is the only review site that explicitly says what you will get with regards to “sex” but unfortunately many books are not reviewed on that site.

b) Many parents that barely have time to see their kids due to an overloaded schedule.  In addition, there are many parents that do not speak English.  Is it reasonable that they will be monitoring their children’s reading content?  Schools have backed off on homework at younger ages for these exact reasons on the premise of equitability.

c) Many parents assume the schools will not provide sexualized content so don’t think to monitor literature for such content.  Our student code of conduct places restrictions on students, with regards to seeking out sexualized content, that they view on their school issued devices at any time or on personal devices while at school.  

Question:

When challengers say “explicit sex” or “sex scenes” what are they really talking about?

Answer:

See "books" section on this site for examples.  In general:  one or more characters in the book engaging in sexual acts for the purpose of sexual arousal for the character or reader and verbiage includes private body parts and what is happening with those body parts

Question:

If parents don’t want their children to read this content can’t they just “opt-out” of such material?

Answer:

Yes and No.  They can opt out of Young Adult books but because books with sexual content aren’t “flagged” they cannot opt out of just that type of content.  In high school, if a child is opted out of Young Adult that eliminates a high percentage of books in the library that do not contain sexually explicit content.  It isn’t right to deny a student age-appropriate books in order to eliminate sexually explicit content.

Question:

Aren't there rating systems, or reviews, like movies and video games, that give content warnings?

Answer:

No.  Common Sense Media has a category for "sex" in which it rates the sexual content; however, many of these books aren't on this site and many school librarians are against using this particular site for peer review purposes because of the value system that is implied.  UPDATE:  There is a very new website being developed, www.booklooks.org , that will give content ratings similar to movies / video games.  This is in the beginning stages but is extremely helpful.  

Question:

Why should we regulate what we provide in our libraries?  Shouldn’t it be each child and family’s decision as to what they should read?  Don’t student’s have First Amendment Rights when it comes to books in their school libraries?

Answer:

“Only that expression that is shown to belong to a few narrow categories of speech is not protected by the Frist Amendment.  The categories of unprotected speech include obscenity, child pornography, defamatory speech, false advertising, true threats and fighting words.” - First Amendment and Censorship (https://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/censorship)

“Obscenity if a category of speech unprotected by the First Amendment.  Obscenity laws are concerned with prohibiting lewd, filthy, or disgusting words or pictures.  Indecent materials or depictions, normally speech or artistic expressions, may be restricted in terms of time, place, and manner, but are still protected by the First Amendment.  There are major disagreements regarding obscene material and the government’s role in regulation.  All fifty states have individual laws controlling obscene material.” (https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/obscenity)

Question:

In challenging books, you are just peaking the interest of the kids.  So why not just let them be.

Answer:

I, personally, would prefer that books that are challenged due to sexually explicit material or self-harm content be first reviewed by a district level administrator and then discussed between the challenger and administrator.  This would eliminate inappropriate books from showing on a site that would peak children's interest.  We shouldn't let this deter us from protecting children from content that some view as harmful and allowing this content to be seen by parents and students.  In my opinion, it is always better to be fully aware than to naïve.