Forum - View topicNEWS: Washington Library Responds to Complaint About Child Borrowing Yaoi Manga
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danilo07
 Posts: 1580 |
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Hardgear
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+1 to that. I am so damn sick of parents thinking it is everyone else's responsibility to take care of their kids. |
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Keichitsu0305
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Precisely! If the parents don't care if their 12 year old girl is renting out the latest DMP released BL manga, then the library should not be at fault. The library is for everyone and they shouldn't have to keep tabs on every single smutty piece of literature that comes through their doors. The parents must monitor their kids not the librarians. |
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Gasero
 Posts: 939 Location: USA |
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I am mostly undecided on this issue, but I am leaning to the side of the library. I really like that the library made their statement clear, candid and reasonable.
Parents tend to want businesses to be the guardians of their children, but the legal obligation is not always there. There are age restriction laws for many things, but whether there is obligation or recommendation to enforce them differs. I would personally appreciate it more if parents talked to their children more about mature subjects. It seems to work better than letting children experience mature subjects while parents lie about or restrict children from learning about them. |
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geneo
Posts: 5 |
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if you go two the store and buy cigarette , if you underage they wont
sell them to you . if you look underage its a no-go why cant the library do the some if the library is organized it only take one person only the other hand the material coming out japan if it anime book or dvds is not good for our kids at all. as japan is number 1 country child sex abuse |
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dan888
Posts: 115 |
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It is against the law to sell cigarettes to someone underage. It is the responsibility of the store to establish the age of the individual is 18 or older, there is a single clear line between what is allowed and what isn't. In the library, the librarians have no business being parents, no business being moral judges, nor any legal requirement to determine if content is morally appropriate for a particular individual. Perhaps this case is more clear cut than most cases, but what if she was a bit older and it could or could not be appropriate, what is the librarian suppose to do. You cannot make clear cut rules as to what one can or cannot checkout like you can with cigarettes (where there is a clear line between yes and no), so the library has no business trying to establish such guidelines, especially with the extremely large amount of content in a library. More so, you seem to just point out anime and manga, however there are plenty of popular books in the library that are far worse than the vast majority of anime and manga in terms of objectionable content.
While at the time it was an ultimatum when the ESRB was established, states afterwards still tried on many occasions to establish laws regarding distribution of violent content in video games. In all cases, these laws have failed, most famously with the Supreme Court ruling a California attempt to do so as unconstitutional. Last edited by dan888 on Tue Oct 16, 2012 5:19 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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RoverTX
 Posts: 424 |
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When I was a kid my parents had to sign a waiver when I got a library card that basically said the library wasn't responsible for anything I checked out.
Though if this was an in person check out a little peek at the industry rating sticker might not have hurt... What I don't understand is how people are surprised when kids get a hold of something adult. When I was a kid we used to get a hold of all types of M games, uncut versions of anime that we had no business watching, and all sorts of other stuff. While I understand why the parents are angry, being surprised just seems silly. Its like being surprised that a crack addict did crack.... |
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Chagen46
 Posts: 4377 |
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ALL parents, and I really do mean ALL, are permanently convinced that their child is a "special angel" who would never do anything wrong. |
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Redbeard 101
Oscar the Grouch
Forums Superstar  Posts: 16941 |
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Have to agree with this. I remember back in the day when I worked for Sam Goody/Suncoast the flak we'd get for some of the Cd's/DVD's we sold to "kids" by their parents. They drop these kids off with a wad of cash, a cell phone, and then leave them at age 10-16 alone to wander the mall so mommy and daddy can have a life and do what they want. Or when they want to blame Manson or GTA for problems with their kids. We have become a blaming society and parents need to own up more. Having a kid is a responsibility and if you're not up for it don't have sex and don't have one. Having the niece wander the library with no supervision is the same thing. The staff there are not there to babysit or raise your kids for you. They are there to assist you in finding reading or research material and to do other library duties. Now to play devil's advocate a bit the library could have checked the material at the checkout more closely. If it had the parental advisory sticker on it then given her age they can, and perhaps should, say no. Not saying it's again automatically their job to but the valid point can be made on that aspect there. As for it's location......different library systems have different ways they arrange things. They can't possibly break down all material into each and every specific category. Libraries in the US simply do not have the resources or time to do that. However some do a better job over others. What I am most pelased with is the fact the library stuck to their guns and their policy and did not back down. Too often it would be the opposite of that. My mother worked for several years here in MD in AA county for the library system. There were a few times parents objected over stuff and despite my mom following the library policies she still got reprimanded and had to apologize to the parents. Not very fair if you ask me. So kudos to them for handling this so well. |
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SereneChaos
 Posts: 384 Location: Middle of Nowhere, USA |
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As someone pointed out earlier, many libraries now have self check out where you just walk up to a computer, scan your library card, scan the book, and your done. If a librarian tried to stop me from checking something out because of my age, I would simply go to the self checkout and borrow it anyway. If there were some kind of age restriction on the computer that stops me from checking out the book that way, then I'd simply go ask to borrow my dad's library card "because I forgot mine" and use that at the self checkout. If that didn't work for whatever reason, then I could simply pull the book from the shelf and read it at the library without checking it out. No matter what they put in place to stop kids from checking out mature content, there would be extremely simple ways to get around them. Why even bother trying to set up a system with such easy loopholes when a lot of people don't even see it as that big of a problem? Everyone matures at a different time. Some 12 year olds are mature enough to handle something rated 18+ and some 20 year olds aren't mature enough for something 18+. Parents are the ones who know their kids best and should decide what they should or shouldn't read or watch. Besides, does anyone really wait until they reach 18 to see an R movie, or until their 13 to start browsing in the teen section of the library? Last edited by SereneChaos on Tue Oct 16, 2012 5:37 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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Tanteikingdomkey
 Posts: 2346 |
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I think it is fair for him to be upset about his niece checking out the book. first off this is a yoai (guy guy book) that is the first red flag to some parents. and it also has sex scenes in it. sure the guy should be upset his 10 year old niece should be upset about that.
Is it the libraries job to keep it in a place that preteens would not pick up by accident, probably. should they have done something to ensure the parent knew what their child was getting, sure. is it their job? no. ultimately this is the parents responsibility to take care of. |
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littlegreenwolf
 Posts: 4796 Location: Seattle, WA |
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Harry Wormwood: Dinner time is family time. What is this trash you're reading? Matilda: It's not trash, Daddy, it's lovely. It's called "Moby Dick", by Herman Melville. Harry Wormwood: Moby *what*? Harry Wormwood: This is Filth! Trash...! Matilda: It's not mine! It's a library book! Harry Wormwood: I'm fed up with all this reading! You're a Wormwood, you start acting like one! Now sit up and look at the TV. |
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EmbraceMe
 Posts: 2015 Location: Growing old and jaded. |
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I work part-time in a library so I was very intrigued by this news. Our system in the library provides an option for the children's cards to be restricted from borrowing adult material; parental consent is required in order to remove that block so if anything happens we won't be accountable for it.
I definitely agree. The parents I see in my library drop off their children there and let them run wild. We're treated like a daycare center. It annoys me a lot because it bothers and prevents me from working. Kids running around throwing books everywhere and destroying bookshelves (that I just fixed and shelved) is frustrating to deal with. The peace and quiet libraries I know are long gone; the sad part is that the employees can't complain because we can get reported for "yelling" at the children and the higher ups are really supportive for these children. |
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flip
Protoculture Addicts Editor in Chief
 Posts: 121 Location: Montreal, Qc |
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This could never happens in the Montreal libraries network because a user with a children library card cannot borrow a book identified as “adult” (i.e. over fourteen year-old). The computerized system would simply refuse to allow such borrowing (unless, of course, the child is using one of his/her parents card which is normally not allowed, but card ownership is rarely checked by libraries' staff).
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hikaru004
 Posts: 2306 |
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I think that the library should have some responsibility. If there is age restricted material, then the kids should not be allowed to read or borrow it. Their cards should be programmed not to allow it.
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