by Jonathan Victor

Created on: October 07, 2010

More than a decade ago, when I was fourteen years old, I put a book on hold from the library because I gained an interest in a particular topic and wanted to read about it on my own. When the library automatically called our house to inform me that the book came in, my mother picked up the book from the library for me. Well, she would have, that is, until she noticed the subject matter of said book. Needless to say, she called me and told me I would not be reading such a book because of its content. Her reasoning behind this was not because the book contained any violence, gore, sexuality, or inappropriate language. No. It was the mere topic of the book that instigated her censorship. It was a book about ideas, about philosophy, something apparently deemed inappropriate to expose to a fourteen year old mind.

Everyone holds different standards of what offends them.

So a catch-all label is not really going to mean much. Yes, there are general concepts that a majority can agree upon being offensive topics or words. But sensibilities really vary. The written word requires a lot more imagination than the television or movie screen, where images of violence are thrown up in all their high definition splendour. The concerned parent really should pick up the book themselves, do the heavy lifting, and read the actual content if they're that concerned. Then they should decide if they feel it is inappropriate for their particular household.

Putting a warning label on books is only going to make the content more desirable.

If you put a label on something, or tell a child that it is banned, taboo, forbidden, what do you think will be the result? Some children will take that at face value and give up on their quest for information. But if the child is like myself, and the topic is important to them, they will pursue other ways to read about the content you are censoring. In fact, kids might find it a lot more cool or mysterious or exciting if a warning label dictates it is not appropriate to read about.

The more you try to cover something up, the harder people will try to uncover the secret.

We see this happen with television shows and movies and music. The same could potentially happen with labelled books. When I was banned from reading the books I wanted, I started to search on the internet for that very same information.

Coddling children from real life is not protecting children.

Some argue that by putting a label on a book, this will protect the children from disturbing ideas. Children are going to be exposed to the harsher sides of real life in one way or another. A parent is not doing them any favours by keeping kids ignorant of the world. Do you really want them to be unprepared for the real world as adults? It would be much better to have a discussion with them about these disturbing things, as they come up. If your child attends public school they have probably been exposed to worse things than what they might read in a young adult book marketed at their age group.

Read the content yourself and hold a discussion with your child about the book.

Parents read books to their children when they are in their youngest stage of life. But with the passing of time this practice seems to disappear. It could be that parents may not have enough time to read the books themselves. Censorship of reading material by way of warning labels is not the answer. More open dialogue between the parent and their kid is really the solution.

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