[bksvol-discuss] Re: Adult Content

  • From: Roger Loran Bailey <rogerbailey81@xxxxxxx>
  • To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Sat, 10 Nov 2012 20:50:24 -0500

I simplify it like this. I don't mark anything as having adult content. We already have a children's category and notwithstanding occasional mistakes it is a pretty good bet that anything not in the children's category is for adults. If children find themselves reading a book that was meant for adults they are likely to not understand it or to find it boring. If you find yourself reading something that you find boring the most likely thing you will do is to just stop reading it and look for something that you find more interesting. On the other hand, there are some precocious children out there who will understand and enjoy books that are intended for adults. They should have the freedom to choose those books if they want to. As for sexual content, I think it is incredibly silly for people to try to "protect" children from knowing about sex. For one thing, it is an impossible task. If they don't read it in a book they will hear it just by walking down the street. For another thing, they are protecting them from nothing. There are real dangers out there that children need to be protected from and it seems like such a tremendous waste of protective energy and resources to protect people from something that is not a danger. After all, we don't see a whole lot of reading related injuries clogging up the hospitals, do we? What really offends me, though, is that when a book is designated as having adult content in Bookshare people under the age of eighteen do not even see it when browsing. They are simply not allowed to read the book at all. That is censorship, pure and simple. It is the arrogant attitude that some self appointed guardians of other people's morality should have the right to decide for other people what they can and cannot read. They decide this on the simple basis of a person's status. If you are of a certain age you are just simply denied. That is completely unfair. People under the age of eighteen can decide for themselves if they want to read something about sex and if they do decide to do it then no harm has been done. The self-righteous censors usually  try to justify themselves by saying that children will not understand it. Okay, children do not understand a lot of things. I, for one, do not understand organic chemistry, but I took classes in it. I even managed to pass somehow, but I did not come out feeling like I understood it. So what harm did my exposure to something I did not understand do? It did no harm at all. I suspect that these self-righteous censors are actually more worried that the children will understand it.
On 11/10/2012 7:37 PM, Lisa Gorden-Cushman wrote:

So if a book has a graphic sex scene, but it brings the characters towards relationship, I should not mark it with Adult Content?  I think I have been guilty of mismarking a few times.  I used to mark something with Adult Content if it had a sex scene in it.  I don’t mind sex scenes at all.  I just wanted to give people the option to avoid them if they did not want to read a sex scene.

 

Thanks for the clarification,

Lisa

 

 

 

From: bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Madeleine Linares
Sent: Friday, November 09, 2012 2:54 PM
To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Adult Content

 

Hi everyone,

 

I thought it was about time for a refresher course in what we mean by Adult Content (also known as “AC”). There has been some confusion (off-list) and I’ve noticed it incorrectly marked in the Approval Queue.

 

Here is a note from our Collection Development Manager on our definition:

 

“Our policy, developed in conjunction with our OSEP funders, is that there are certain kinds of content -- explicit depictions of sexual acts with no redeeming social value, as well as extreme and gratuitous violence -- will require a minor to get an adult guardian's permission to access.  As a "content-neutral" collection, we will never exclude a title for any potentially controversial or distasteful content, but we will tag some content for adult (or minors with a guardian's permission) use only.  The idea is that parents can control the access their kids have to content deemed potentially inappropriate -- but they don't have the right to control or limit access to anybody else's kids.

 

The "walking into a bookstore or library" test continues to be a good one.  Could a non-print-disabled kid walk into a good bookstore or public library and get a copy of this book without an adult being involved?  If the answer is yes, a print-disabled kid should be able to do the same on Bookshare.  We are not interested in placing additional barriers to access for our members that their peers do not experience.  This means we do have stuff available to members under 18 that has sex, and swearing, and violence, and substance abuse in it, and that is okay and in keeping with the generally recognized standards of "freedom to read" policy in this country.

 

We don't have a perfect implementation of this policy yet -- I see evidence that we were a little more strait-laced in the early days (and fix it when I come across it), and our automated filtering from publisher feeds still needs some fine-tuning.  When I'm trying to navigate something particular "gray area-y" like the steamier of the romances coming in, I ask myself about the intent -- is the action (even if hot and heavy) designed to move the characters towards relationship, or is the plot driven only by the need to get body parts intermingling again?  It's the latter that's clearly AC, while the former continues to be ambiguous.  Author intent is, alas, pretty gray-area-y and subjective itself, but I think it can help separate the sheep from the goats.”

 

Adult content is confusing and clearly not black and white. Many romances (such as a lot of the Harlequin ones), though certainly racy, should not be labeled as AC. A 16-year-old could walk into a book store and buy ones of those books just as easily as a 38-year old, although his or her parents might not approve and might consider the content inappropriate. Anyway, just thought it couldn’t hurt to remind everyone!

 

Feel free to contact me with questions, as always.

 

Best,

 

Madeleine Linares

Volunteer Coordinator

Bookshare, a Benetech Initiative

650-644-3459

madeleinel@xxxxxxxxxxxx

 

Join us in celebrating our 10th Anniversary!

 

Title: Bookshare logo: Bringing Reading to Life for 10 Years

 


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