To think it is wrong for libraries to have violent material/porn e.g. Chucky?

[Jules2008]

I was in the kids section of my local library with my kids. My DS aged 3 passes me a copy of Chucky (cover shot: a huge dagger dripping with blood), the one which was claimed to have a role in the James Bulger killers' turning to violence. My DS says innocently "can I have this one, I like it"? I then saw he had been browsing through 3 other truly horrifically violent books. I went ballastic at the library assistant who was very apologetic that this material had found its way into the kids' section ... as it was meant for the teenage section and they sometimes went and read it in the kids section so no one could see them. Apparently, this is the council's way of making the library relevant to teenagers. By the way, the area I live in (Clapham/Stockwell) is rife with teenager violence (knives/guns). I realise that all this disgusting stuff is on the net but should we be almost condoning this by providing it free of charge in libraries? These kids need protecting - they need to be set better examples surely? Or am I just turning into a fuddy duddy?

Try working in a Education Library (ie Uni or Sixth Form). The teenagers get to study both porn and violence for their coursework, so we get to stock it. Many years ago our very elderly Librarian agreed with a complaint from a member of Faculty and locked a very blatant porn book in the secure store we have for valuable material. Now everythings on the open shelves, including some very explicit DVD's which are shelved next to the Disney ones (which are often perused by children of students/staff). If we're going to censor then start censoring the courses offered by Further Education Establishments.

(Try the Art section for the porn btw )

Oh we kept ours locked up biscuits. Good job too, a survey of the uni I worked at for a while found that 19% of students had had sex in the library. They didn't need encouragement.

Good friend did her undergrad dissertation on the representation of men in pornographic literature. She claimed back the money for the oodles of magazines she bought and left strewn on her coffee table. I vividly remember a chappie in a chef outfit with his meat and two veg flopped onto a convenient stool staring up at me from the faded pine.

Sex in the library? Blimey, never occurred to me as a venue. Am now wondering what I missed!

YABU unless you can point to a peer reviewed study that links porn/violent media with violence in anyway.

HasBeenThroughThisBeforeTiggaxx

YABU. repeat after me........"my child will not be scarred for life nor will they commit multiple murders due entirely to picking up a Chucky book in a library one time aged three." And methinks you were exaggerating about the porn. Made for a more interesting thread title though, eh?

YABU - looking at the back of dirty / horror vids and giggling while Mum looks for The Care Bears for her dearest kiddies to watch is part of growing up.

YAalsoBU for having a go at the assistant. Someone else put it in the wrong place.......its the smallest of deals its almost an amoeba......

YABU- Libarys have a duty to cater for everyone. Our children are likely to come across unpleasant things in life wherever we take them from boobs on billboards to gang shootings on the news. You can't censor everything all the time, you can simply use these things to educate your children in an honest and appropriate way about some of life's more unsavoury aspects.
There is absolutely no evidense to suggest that film was responsible for the murder of Jamie Bulger. Children watch violent films everyday and don't go out and commit murders.
Also YABVU to 'go ballistic' at the librarian. If you have a compliant to make you should do so in calm and polite manner.

I remember when I was 9 coming home from the library with a biography of the Kray twins. Not quite sure why I chose it. Read it, and it didn't turn me into a killer though.