Thursday, September 28, 2006

Is censorship OK sometimes?

We got a letter from 11-year-old Abbey, who feels that censorship is OK in some situations. Here's what she has to say:

"I believe it is okay to censor some books that mention things like sex and puberty and even dating from younger children. I only believe that it is okay to ban books that talk about sex to YOUNGER CHILDREN. I also believe it is partially your parents choice to what you read and when to explain to you things like puberty and sex. I believe in some cases censorship is okay; but definitely not in all cases is censorship okay."

I definitely agree with Abbey that parents should have some say over what their kids see and read. And I'm interested in the argument about whether censorship is OK in some cases. For example, when books tell you how to do something harmful -- like how to break into someone's house or how to create a computer virus -- should bookstores and libraries still be allowed to carry these books?

Please comment to leave your thoughts, or write your own post and send it to blog@newmoon.org.

1 comment:

Abby said...

I think censorship is totally wrong. Just because a kid reads about something in a book, doesn't mean that they're going to start living their life by what that book says. I mean, if most kids read about drugs, or sex or something, than they would learn not to do those things! So if someone reads about them and that makes that person want to go out and start doing them, than it's not the book you should be worried about, it's the kid. Most kids are a lot smarter than adults give us credit for.