10-Year-Old Borrows Steamy Gay Sex Manga From Local Library

[RanceJustice]

I'm squarely in the library's corner. I find it rather amazing that libraries have, over the past decade+, have repeatedly shown themselves to be willing to defend privacy and free, open access to information where so many others crumble at the slightest hint of resistance; especially when children are involved.

The only issue I'm confused about is manga being shelved as "non-fiction". I would think that it would be shelved in a comic books and graphic novel section within Fiction, further divided into eastern and western graphic novels and so forth. Mayhap this is a typo?

That said, I'm very glad the library operates under the policy it does. It is the parent's responsibility to decide what the child is able to read. Most libraries (at least, around here) have an available "Kids section only" card as well as an "adult/full" card which permits borrowing from anywhere - though, I perhaps wouldn't object to them offering a third "general" classification which provides access to more than a kids-only section but not everything. If you want to restrict your kid without having to actually monitor what they're reading, get them a kid's only library card. Otherwise, it takes a bit of work.

I'm worried that this kind of thing is going to cause a backlash that affects at very least manga and graphic novels, if not other library content. It would be a complete logistical and practical nightmare for libraries to have to decide "This is adults-only content, while this is general content". Every day there would be some "crusader for decency" claiming that X book/manga/video etc... needs to be filed away behind the dark curtain. Where would you put nearly the whole "Romance" section? Bodice-rippers? What about violent content? Someone would be ranting even about non-fiction books on the Occult, for instance. Non-fiction war-crimes books with say, pictures of internment and concentration camps? People have so many different views about what is "adults only" content that library staff wouldn't have time to do anything but deal with these complaints.

I'm gathering this is more of a bias because it is a graphic novel versus a text-only novel. I can remember back in my "tweens" in the 90s, a young lady I fancied lent me one of her favorite books from the library - written by Poppy Z. Brite. Though completely in text, this book contained hardcore, homosexual acts that were sometimes mixed with violence and non-consensual (ie drugged) states. Had the offended uncle's niece come home with this book instead of manga, would he still be crying that the library should have sequestered it away so that even a child with a "full, adult" library card couldn't check it out?

I'm a great proponent of libraries as repository of information, art, culture, and entertainment, regardless of medium. Especially for those with lower incomes, libraries are sometimes one of the only methods of accessing knowledge and entertainment outside of their neighborhood bubble. Especially in an age where there are many who hate anything "public" in the US, libraries should have demonstrated usefulness - not just as silent cobweb-wearing archives of classic texts, but a wide variety of media that is informative, entertaining, enlightening, and enjoyable for all sorts of preferences. I don't want to see this squashed with more "Think of the children" rhetoric. Libraries do their part by offering restricted and unrestricted borrowers/access cards; parents need to do the rest.

 

[Royas]

Well, they are really opening themselves up for a suit for providing pornography to minors arent they.

I figure they should stock most kinds of things, but giving visual pornography to pre-teens is a bit much IMO

Read the response from the KCLS. They are in the right here, what he complains about is even stated in the Parental Responsibility Policy. The fact that they have a wide variety of things in stock doesn't affect the fact that he's a closed minded parent that didn't supervise his child.

Do you really think that this parent (or not parent, as the case may be) really is in the wrong here?

The little girl was 10, obviously too young for the material, and yet she was able to get to it easily. The parents have a responsibilty to their children's welfare, but at the same time, if you ask your daughter where she got the big stack of comic books from, and she replies "in the comic books section of the library", do you then go through every single one to make sure they're all on the up-and-up?

The complainer didn't buy it, nor get it for his niece. she picked it up, probably by herself, from the libaray, a public building. KCLS is most certainly not in the right here, and their "oh, you should've been more careful, because it's not OUR job to properly categorise our books" is just arrogant and stupid. Imagine if a video store put pornography out on the general shelves, and then told parents it's THEIR fault when their child picks one up?

I'm going to side with the library here. When I was that young, my parents did, in fact, look at everything I was going to check out. Because, you see, that was their job. It's not a popular position nowadays, but it is the job of the adults in a child's family to see to it that the child is supervised and raised correctly. It is not the place of the library to make value judgements on the content of the books on their shelves. The library shouldn't even be expected to know what is in each book, there are too many books in the average collection for that.

Perhaps the adult here should have taken a quick look at the stack of manga the young lady was checking out and said "Whoa, wait a second young lady. Do you know what is in this one?" when he saw the sticker, or even the cover. The cover alone should have caused him to check the book before letting the girl check it out. In fact, it sounds like he did look at the books before his niece read them, so no harm was done (assuming one is asinine enough to believe a child would come to harm by seeing drawings of (gasp!) SEX happening). I just maintain that the books should have been vetted by a guardian before checkout, thereby nipping this problem in the bud.

My only beef here is that the comic was filed as non-fiction. Umm, since when is a manga of this nature non-fiction? Sounds like a fiction book to me. If anything, I'd think that graphic novels and comics should have their own classification, separate from both fiction and non-fiction, much as music and films have separate sections. It's too big a literary field, with many traits unique to it. It encompasses both fiction (it's largest area) and non-fiction, with most genres contained within, from fantasy to modern drama. It really should be in a different place altogether.

 

[UltraXan]

Ah, I find things like this hilarious. As soon as I saw the title, I KNEW this would be good. A kid accidentally looks at porn in a public place, parents freak out saying that the porn shouldn't be there in the first place, and the officials come back saying that they should keep a closer eye on their kid and mind their own fucking business. In all honesty, I'm really on the side of the latter. The library wants to keep a variety of material for *everyone* and if a kid goes somewhere they shouldn't, that is THEIR problem, not the library's.

"Your rights end where other's rights begin." Pretty good quote if you ask me.

 

[FEichinger]

Is it that hard for a librarian to notice an adult only sticker and tell a 10 year old kid that she can't borrow it unless she has her parents with her or something?

Read the article. They have a policy on it, and that's pretty much: "Parents, it's your fault, if your kid borrows something they shouldn't. We don't put artificial restrictions on material just 'cause you fail to watch them."

I'm definitely with the library on this. If a 10-yo kid is given free access to a library, you should know what they have access to and not expect someone else to keep them "protected". Protect them yourselves, or teach them that it's a no-no, rather than calling out a library for a policy they publicly have.

 

[Jonluw]

I'm with the library on this one.
Lots of books available at the library contain material that isn't appropriate for children. I don't see why different rules should be applied for graphic novels.
The book even had a parental advisory sticker.

 

[samahain]

My local library has a check it out yourself terminal, meaning that I don't have to interact with staff to check books out.

This sounds to me like yet another person who feels that the parenting of children should be left to someone other than parents. Clearly it isn't the fault of the people that let a pre-teen wander around unsupervised, it must be the libraries fault for stocking the material in the first place. /sarcasm

Given the fact that you can find far worse in written word than "a little bit rapey", this is just overreaction based on the fact that this particular book was manga rather than text.

I agree with you on the whole. However that's not a good idea to stash yaoi along with youth reading. They have sections exactly for that. I mean she's not even in age of reading TWILIGHT as far as I'm concerned.

At least I figure the dad had some talk with his 10-year old. Not notifying the library -and his wording was adequate I believe- would have been careless.

 

[verdant monkai]

The library I go to is a lot less interesting than her's obviously.

This is not really the parents fault for not invading their child's privacy enough. You should allow kids a bit of free will to grow as a person, it is all part of being a parent or so I am told.

It is mostly the fault of whoever let her check it out, they should have looked at the book, seen the parental guidance sticker, then asked her if her parents were ok to check it out for her. However when you are checking out loads of books everyday they may just blend into one, and you start to just not give a shit. After all the casual observer who knows nothing of anime/manga, would probably not even look long at the cover.

The cover is also pink which is the same, with most of the books ten year old girls read. Also even if they looked at the cover, most people who don't like anime cannot even tell the differences in gender between characters. My parent are a great example, whilst watching final fantasy advent children. My Dad staggered in and asked "who's she?" he was talking about Cloud. Then later my mum walks in and says "Oh she's pretty isn't she", she was talking about Sephiroth who was at the time cutting through a rather large falling building. Seems stupid to us internet types, but a lot of westerners cannot tell their Sasuke's from their Sakura's.

However I suppose there should really be an adult section for these things. And people should AT LEAST check what they are letting kids check out.

 

[DarthSka]

Technically, since I assume that he already got a library card for her, he agreed to all their terms and conditions (without reading probably, but who does honestly?), so he already agreed that this wouldn't be their fault. Still, why the hell is a manga in non-fiction? And why are both adult and children's versions stocked together? That just makes no sense to me. I can definitely understand this guy's grievances. Also, to all these people saying, "He's the parent, it's his fault, where was he?" A parent is not at their child's side 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And sometimes, other people do stupid things concerning that child, like letting them check out yaoi. At that point, I think they have the right to complain about it.

 

[Ushiromiya Battler]

Is it that hard for a librarian to notice an adult only sticker and tell a 10 year old kid that she can't borrow it unless she has her parents with her or something?

Read the article. They have a policy on it, and that's pretty much: "Parents, it's your fault, if your kid borrows something they shouldn't. We don't put artificial restrictions on material just 'cause you fail to watch them."

I'm definitely with the library on this. If a 10-yo kid is given free access to a library, you should know what they have access to and not expect someone else to keep them "protected". Protect them yourselves, or teach them that it's a no-no, rather than calling out a library for a policy they publicly have.

I read the article and I'm on the libraries side, but still would it be THAT hard to just tell the kid she can't borrow it?

 

[Baldr]

Government always trying to come down on businesses who make these mistakes, but when a Government agency does it, "it the parents responsibility"...

 

[Ledan]

As someone who loves to read, I still have to agree with both sides. All books should be welcome in the library, but some books are not appropriate for children. It all depends on the kid though, some are rather mature for their age. But when it comes to graphic sex scenes, and graphic gore perhaps the library should have a policy of "if your parents thinks it's okay for you to check this book out".
Game of thrones isn't really appropriate for an 8-13 year old, even if they do like LOTR or TWOT. I've been surprised several times when a book has more sex in it than it would appear to have, so I think there should be a summary of what types of things are in the book so that people can make an informed decision about what their kids are reading. Sort of like the ESRP, but without guidelines for age just a list of what the book contains. Eg: graphic sex/sexual themes/romance. mild violence/violence/graphic violence and rape/. Stuff like that.

EDIT:
And I do not agree with the mentality that "it was the parents fault, where were they?". It's a goddamn library! Children should be encouraged to go there on their own and check out books, I did it all the time at that age. It isn't the parent's fault for encouraging their child to go to the library without holding their hand -_-

 

[Playful Pony]

Woah, hold your horses! (Sorry, I've been waiting to use that one =D)

*rawr* I do love me some equine puns Oo.

To be fair, it's not exactly common knowledge or expected of women to fantasise about men bumping uglies. I only know one girl who (at least admits) to finding two men kissing attractive, but people sincerely asked if I was heterosexual when I said I don't find two women kissing attractive. Hell, most women I asked were repulsed at the idea because they felt it emasculated at least one of the men involved, and we can't have men going around being weak little queerosexuals now, can we? *Grumble grumble*

Well I don't know... My male friends don't seem to have very extensive knowledge of women though... Some of them only know one female besides their mother, and that's me so.. And I'm not a very girly gal! Come to think of it, me being their only female friend should cause them to think all females are somewhat perverted X3. Maybe it's just the idea of two men kissing (and more) that's the problem, which is stupidly oldfashioned...

Most of my female friends are into something kinky, something that my male friends wouldn't even consider a female capable of liking. I'm talking male-on-male, female-on-female, male-on-octopus, male-on-incubus, male-on-... You get the idea!

Oh I know I'm married to woman who loves these fantasies, I just didn't realize that particular fantasy was so popular there was a whole pop-culture around it.

EDIT: I really don't go by the whole female on female thing that guys love so much. As a guy... I just don't get it. So I tend not to try and compare it to fantasies women would have.

Heh, I guess it depends on the type of person? My female friends are generally a bit like me. They like games, fiction and cute stuff, and they are all into something like these yaoi mangas. I could also recommend anyone to read some of them, one call Mister Mistress is hillarious X3. I don't find it very sexy, but it makes me laugh a lot!

 

[cainx10a]

Hehe, I still remember when I discovered some weird erotic french comic from the local library involving hot sex slaves getting well cozy with gorillas, and time travel, and stuff. I was about 12-13, had no clue what sex slavery, or bestiality was at the time.

On-topic: The library should have at least bothered to verify the content of the manga :s

 

[VanTesla]

This article just made my day. This is just to funny to me since I never knew that libraries would hold that kind of stuff. I mean I know they hold thing like the kama sutra and etc, but never knew they held hentai manga lol. Maybe I should go check my local library to see what they have...

Also I am with the Library on the defense to have any material out there, but could see a section that is all adult only so then the parents have zero bs to talk back about...

 

[VanTesla]

Hehe, I still remember when I discovered some weird erotic french comic from the local library involving hot sex slaves getting well cozy with gorillas, and time travel, and stuff. I was about 12-13, had no clue what sex slavery, or bestiality was at the time.

On-topic: The library should have at least bothered to verify the content of the manga :s

That French comic sounds much more raunchy and messed up than the yaoi manga, but god that is funny.

 

[FEichinger]

Is it that hard for a librarian to notice an adult only sticker and tell a 10 year old kid that she can't borrow it unless she has her parents with her or something?

Read the article. They have a policy on it, and that's pretty much: "Parents, it's your fault, if your kid borrows something they shouldn't. We don't put artificial restrictions on material just 'cause you fail to watch them."

I'm definitely with the library on this. If a 10-yo kid is given free access to a library, you should know what they have access to and not expect someone else to keep them "protected". Protect them yourselves, or teach them that it's a no-no, rather than calling out a library for a policy they publicly have.

I read the article and I'm on the libraries side, but still would it be THAT hard to just tell the kid she can't borrow it?

Why should they? That's the whole point: Kids may borrow whatever the hell they want. It's up to them and their parents to deal with the "protection" or whatever you may call it, not to the library.

 

[Frankster]

Guess they are trying everything to get more kids into libraries these days eh?

Im siding with the library on this one, though its unfair to blame the parents or say they are doing a poor job by not checking what their daughter bought, its a book and such things are easily hidden if the daughter really wanted to read hawt yaoi bishi action.

 

[Ushiromiya Battler]

Is it that hard for a librarian to notice an adult only sticker and tell a 10 year old kid that she can't borrow it unless she has her parents with her or something?

Read the article. They have a policy on it, and that's pretty much: "Parents, it's your fault, if your kid borrows something they shouldn't. We don't put artificial restrictions on material just 'cause you fail to watch them."

I'm definitely with the library on this. If a 10-yo kid is given free access to a library, you should know what they have access to and not expect someone else to keep them "protected". Protect them yourselves, or teach them that it's a no-no, rather than calling out a library for a policy they publicly have.

I read the article and I'm on the libraries side, but still would it be THAT hard to just tell the kid she can't borrow it?

Why should they? That's the whole point: Kids may borrow whatever the hell they want. It's up to them and their parents to deal with the "protection" or whatever you may call it, not to the library.

Then lets agree to disagree.
I mean a clerk can say to a kid she can't borrow something that has a sticker on it telling everyone it's adult stuff.

You mean it's up to the parents.