Friday, May 21, 2004
A couple of months ago I went to Gosh! in London to buy some graphic novels for The Closed Library with our library's then Children's Librarian. We both had a thousand quid, I would be buying for the adult stock, she would be buying for the teenage. I had abig list of stuff and went through it pretty quickly, she didn't know anything about comics and so was a bit slower. I showed her Ultimate X-Men. She flicked through it and came across a full-page picture of Cyclops, lying defeated on the ground and looking like he'd had seven shades of ink knocked out of him, bruised, bleeding, the full works. She decided to pass on buying the book for teenagers.
And if we were in America she'd have been right to do so. There's legislation going through the system to allow parents to sue anyone who's responsible for giving “material that is harmful to minors” to children. Now, maybe this is to stop those ice-cream trucks that drive around the US handing out porn mags that we've all heard about, but it could also be used to sue libraries that lend comics and graphic novels to kids, or shops that sell them. So, to all the parents in the world I would like to make the following announcement:
"IT IS NOT OUR RESPONSIBILITY TO BRING UP YOUR CHILDREN! You spawed them so you stop them watching TV you think is bad for them, you stop them from eating at McDonalds, you watch over them in public places and you check what they are reading, if they still do that any more, before they read it. Now, we won't give a copy of The Torture Garden to an eleven year old who has worked her way through all the Lemony Snicket books, and there are rules which means a toddler can't take out The Exorcist, but it's not our responsibility to magically know whether you don't want your child reading Superman or Maus.
While we're at it. If we don't have a sign up saying the opposite, libraries are not creches. If you dump your child in the children's library so you can go off and use the computers, it is not our job to make sure your toddler doesn't toddle right out the front door.
It's bad enough you're contributing to the overpopulation of this planet as it is. It doesn't mean everyone has to bring up your children for you."
Thank you very much.
And if we were in America she'd have been right to do so. There's legislation going through the system to allow parents to sue anyone who's responsible for giving “material that is harmful to minors” to children. Now, maybe this is to stop those ice-cream trucks that drive around the US handing out porn mags that we've all heard about, but it could also be used to sue libraries that lend comics and graphic novels to kids, or shops that sell them. So, to all the parents in the world I would like to make the following announcement:
"IT IS NOT OUR RESPONSIBILITY TO BRING UP YOUR CHILDREN! You spawed them so you stop them watching TV you think is bad for them, you stop them from eating at McDonalds, you watch over them in public places and you check what they are reading, if they still do that any more, before they read it. Now, we won't give a copy of The Torture Garden to an eleven year old who has worked her way through all the Lemony Snicket books, and there are rules which means a toddler can't take out The Exorcist, but it's not our responsibility to magically know whether you don't want your child reading Superman or Maus.
While we're at it. If we don't have a sign up saying the opposite, libraries are not creches. If you dump your child in the children's library so you can go off and use the computers, it is not our job to make sure your toddler doesn't toddle right out the front door.
It's bad enough you're contributing to the overpopulation of this planet as it is. It doesn't mean everyone has to bring up your children for you."
Thank you very much.
