Book Banning in Public School Libraries
Music, films, art and literature all have different styles that are geared toward certain audiences. There a three audience types that tend to naturally occur– adults, teens, and children. Due to the age ranges, many of the works such as music, films and other forms of entertainment have age restrictions. Placing age requirements on certain things is generally a welcomed practice because people know that the minds of adolescents can be easily manipulated. Children can easily learn violent, sexual, and offensive behavior from movies, music, images, video games and literature. For almost all of these types of work, the government has placed laws to restrict younger age groups and the parents usually have the final say about permitting their child to partake in certain things. Someone should be able to regulate the literature a child has access to as well. Government organizations such as school boards should be able to control the books available in public school libraries, but not all parents will agree with school boards. So at the very least, parents should have the power to ban books from public school libraries if there are enough parents in agreement.
Ratings are found on all types of entertainment. Movies have ratings such as G (General Audiences), PG (Parental Guidance Suggested), PG-13 (Parents Strongly Cautioned), R (Restricted) and NC-17 (No One Under 17 Admitted) that determine which age group is able to watch a film. As stated in legal documentation on the history of the motion picture rating system, “the creators of motion pictures undertake a responsibility to make available pertinent information about their pictures which will assist parents to fulfill their responsibilities” (Motion Pictures Rating System 1986). This is clearly stating that specifically parents should be informed about motion pictures. Music albums sold in stores can often be seen with a label on the front that reads “PARENTAL ADVISORY EXPLICIT CONTENT” that informs a buyer of explicit material. Video games also have ratings similar to movies that allow parents to be aware of the content a child will witness during gameplay. All of these ratings and restrictions are results of legalities causing the government to provide safety measurements, but in each of the situations the parents have the final say in what a child can do. A movie theater won’t admit a child for an R rated movie because of rules, but if a parent purchases a ticket for the child it is okay. It is the same way for purchasing music and video games. The only reason for these ratings is because it is known that they can affect the minds of children. With literature having the same capability of negatively influencing a child, parents should be able to control what their children read even if it means banning books from a school library.
There are many accounts of children committing violent, sexual, aggressive and offensive actions, and more than expected can be associated with entertainment and arts of the same nature. An article specifically on the impact of video games on adolescents stated, “they [video games] are a unique form of entertainment, because they encourage players to become a part of the game's script” (Norcia, “The Impact of Video Games”). When a child plays videos games they are invited to become the actual player in the game. All senses of reality flea and the player becomes the character in the video game soon enough. Through taking on a virtual form of body, children can forget their real life and become captivated entirely with the freedom of doing anything they want in a video game without any repercussions. The realistic settings of today’s video games don’t make this issue any better either. Nowadays, the best games are less and less arcade styled like old-fashioned Pac-Man and Galaga, and much more lifelike with human characters and insanely realistic graphics. How can a child not get confused when the games