Shielding Children from Obscenity 'Common Sense,' Not Censorship

Oklahoma Legislation Would Restrict Sexually Explicit Material to Adults-Only Access

By Allie Martin and Jody Brown

April 7, 2006

(AgapePress) - State representatives in Oklahoma have approved proposed legislation that would require public libraries to place sexually explicit materials in a separate section and to distribute such materials only to adults.

Should House Bill 2158 become law, it would keep tax dollars from libraries that refuse to protect children from sexually explicit library materials. Representative Sally Kern's bill passed 60-33 and now heads to the Oklahoma Senate.

The bill states that unless a library has taken action to place "all children and young adult materials that contain homosexual or sexually explicit subject matter" in an area apart from the children and young adult sections, the state's Department of Libraries Board will not allocate state funds to that library. Says Kern, children deserve a period of "protected innocence" during which they are shielded from such material. Associated Press earlier quoted Kern as observing that contemporary advertisers apparently "can't sell toothpaste without sex," and that even the American Library Association is "out to sexualize our children."

The measure is opposed by the American Library Association, which argues that the legislation is contrary to two of the Association's four legislative goals -- supporting unrestricted access and preserving local library control.

Erik Stanley is chief counsel with Florida-based Liberty Counsel, which consulted in drafting the language for HB 2158. Stanley says the proposed legislation is a "common-sense thing" -- and does not impose censorship, as some have suggested.

"We're not asking for these books to be banned from the library, or to take them out and burn them," the attorney explains. "Obscenity laws protect children from seeing obscene things until over the age of 18. Libraries are not exempt from that -- and libraries should not be exempt. We're just simply asking that these books be placed in an area of the library where only parents [and adults] can get hold of them if they want to."

And lest some think their community does not have to worry about this issue, Stanley says the problem is not limited to the Sooner State.

"This is a major problem ... in libraries across the country," he says, "where parents have been exposed to and have seen books [in children's sections] containing sexually explicit instructions on how to perform sex acts [in] language that sailors would not even use."

Liberty Counsel cites a situation in Arkansas in which a parent brought to light children's books in the public school libraries that graphically depicted sexual intercourse, rape, sadomasochism, group sex, and incest. Liberty Counsel president Mat Staver says the content of many books that are written for children is "disturbing," as is the fact that those same materials are easily accessible to children without parents' knowledge.

"Exposing children to graphic sexual material at taxpayer expense is a serious problem that needs to be addressed," says Staver in a press release. He adds that federal, state, and local governments are not required to fund libraries that refuse to implement "reasonable protections" that are designed to shield children from books that contain "obscene or pornographic language or images."

Stanley expresses his firm's hope that the push behind Representative Kern's bill will encourage similar movements in other states to pass similar legislation.

Associated Press says prior to the House vote, Kern distributed to her fellow legislators several excerpts from books she said were found in local libraries. The excerpts were from books that contained homosexual or sexually explicit references, and the state representative remarked, "The average citizen does not have a clue what is in the library."

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