She writes, “they are allowing young children to read about things that there are laws out there protecting them from.” This statement is true, but not in the way the writer intended. There are, in fact, books in the library that inform children about some of the dangers that exist in the real world. That’s a good thing.

—

Censorship-Free Libraries: Porn, Predators and Prevarication (via notemily)

(Reblogging oneself on tumblr is surprisingly difficult to accomplish.)

Censorship-Free Libraries is a new blog discussing the ideas surrounding the West Bend library challenge. I particularly liked this quote, as I think that’s an issue that tends to be completely forgotten when discussing kids’ access to “harmful” information: “protecting” kids from sexually explicit material will not protect them from the real world. If you keep children from knowing anything about sex, how will you educate them about sexual abuse, rape, and sexual predators?

For more, read Harmful to Minors: The Perils of Protecting Children from Sex by Judith Levine. I highly recommend it.