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NEWS: Judge Blocks Arkansas Law Criminalizing Librarians, Stores Who Provide 'Obscene Material' to M


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Never_Know_Best



Joined: 17 Dec 2011
Posts: 176
PostPosted: Wed Aug 02, 2023 3:02 pm Reply with quote
Good. This law sounds awful.

Though at the same time, having spent the last half-decade working in public schools, I wish librarians would/could be more careful. The first middle school I was at had ordered Mysterious Girlfriend X for their very first year in operation…
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Chris Handsome



Joined: 07 Sep 2010
Posts: 286
PostPosted: Wed Aug 02, 2023 3:22 pm Reply with quote
Never_Know_Best wrote:
The first middle school I was at had ordered Mysterious Girlfriend X for their very first year in operation…


Can't have middle school students tasting each others drool, especially with all this Covid going around and how easily influenced today's uneducated youth are because every brilliant idea they get comes from Youtube or TikTok.

Can't imagine a title like that getting taken out at a middle school library of all places. Especially when today kids don't bother to read at all. My city doesn't even have a library anymore.
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Firefly251



Joined: 14 Jul 2018
Posts: 355
PostPosted: Wed Aug 02, 2023 3:50 pm Reply with quote
The Bible needs punishable if this goes into law as the bible is worse than msot other stuff they have issues with.
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encrypted12345



Joined: 25 Jan 2012
Posts: 718
PostPosted: Wed Aug 02, 2023 4:40 pm Reply with quote
Honestly, the most that should be done is that media should get an age rating and that should be the end of that. Obviously, no porn in the public schools, but normal libraries and universities should be free game.
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WoodDude



Joined: 22 Dec 2022
Posts: 67
PostPosted: Wed Aug 02, 2023 4:59 pm Reply with quote
encrypted12345 wrote:
Honestly, the most that should be done is that media should get an age rating and that should be the end of that. Obviously, no porn in the public schools, but normal libraries and universities should be free game.


Is it normal for porn to be in public libraries? I don't remember the last time I ever went to a library but it was probably as a kid over 20 years ago.

The main issue with obscenity laws is the vagueness. It sounds like they just need to specify what they mean by obscene material. I doubt anyone would object to not let adults push porn or ecchi stuff onto minors because that's pretty sus when an adult tries to get kids to look at explicit material, but if it's just something like Dragonball where you can see kid Goku/Gohan's donger then whatever, no big deal there.
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AJ (LordNikon)



Joined: 14 Apr 2009
Posts: 504
Location: Kyoto
PostPosted: Wed Aug 02, 2023 5:02 pm Reply with quote
Good, about time America comes to sense. I rather my grandchildren have access to Urotsukidoji and Inju Seisen at local library instead of seedy internet site with terribly scanlations like ill-mannered yaks.

Last edited by AJ (LordNikon) on Wed Aug 02, 2023 5:03 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Gem-Bug



Joined: 10 Nov 2018
Posts: 1220
PostPosted: Wed Aug 02, 2023 5:02 pm Reply with quote
As a library worker, good. This makes me happy.
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harminia



Joined: 24 Aug 2015
Posts: 2008
Location: australia
PostPosted: Wed Aug 02, 2023 5:16 pm Reply with quote
Glad they knocked this back. Laws like this, where the definitions of what should be criminalised are so vague, are the most dangerous ones. You pass this and anything will be banned, including completely harmless queer books (you know that's one of the things they want to ban).
Making non-minor areas is stupid in a library or bookstore. Like, it's one thing having an area marked as adult material, but no one is getting paid enough to be a bouncer checking anyone's ID every time they want to go borrow a book. It'd also mean 99% of a library/store would be behind no-minors-allowed!!! restrictions, because most non-children's books have content that may be deemed "obscene" to minors. Murder, sex, drug themes, etc.

The callout of books that are appropriate for older minors but not younger was such a good argument. It's so true. You probably wouldn't want your 8 year old reading a book aimed at 17 year olds, but how do you stop that from happening if its a "minor" targeted book? Guess you need a bouncer to check the IDs of 8 year olds to make sure they aren't looking at anything appropriate.....
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vorkedlarfleeze



Joined: 01 Jul 2023
Posts: 20
PostPosted: Wed Aug 02, 2023 6:15 pm Reply with quote
AJ (LordNikon) wrote:
Good, about time America comes to sense. I rather my grandchildren have access to Urotsukidoji and Inju Seisen at local library instead of seedy internet site with terribly scanlations like ill-mannered yaks.


I wouldn't want my kid reading those... but maybe I'm just weird though.
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Gem-Bug



Joined: 10 Nov 2018
Posts: 1220
PostPosted: Wed Aug 02, 2023 8:06 pm Reply with quote
vorkedlarfleeze wrote:
AJ (LordNikon) wrote:
Good, about time America comes to sense. I rather my grandchildren have access to Urotsukidoji and Inju Seisen at local library instead of seedy internet site with terribly scanlations like ill-mannered yaks.


I wouldn't want my kid reading those... but maybe I'm just weird though.


Kids will find a way to read what they want regardless of what their parents want.
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chrisb
Subscriber



Joined: 07 May 2006
Posts: 618
Location: USA
PostPosted: Wed Aug 02, 2023 9:27 pm Reply with quote
A lot of these challenged books are actually really helpful in teaching kids how to watch out for signs of abuse. Not sure why the far right wants to promote the idea of all creeps being shadowey boogeymen when it’s usually someone the victims think they should trust.

Gem-Bug wrote:
vorkedlarfleeze wrote:
AJ (LordNikon) wrote:
Good, about time America comes to sense. I rather my grandchildren have access to Urotsukidoji and Inju Seisen at local library instead of seedy internet site with terribly scanlations like ill-mannered yaks.


I wouldn't want my kid reading those... but maybe I'm just weird though.


Kids will find a way to read what they want regardless of what their parents want.


It’s also up to the parents to monitor what their children watch/read. It’s best to build a relationship with your kids that encourages conversation even over the weirdest stuff. That way it’ll be obvious if the kid is being exposed to topics too advanced/unsafe for them and they can be redirected to learning about whatever they wanna know in healthy age appropriate ways.
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Covnam



Joined: 31 May 2005
Posts: 3684
PostPosted: Wed Aug 02, 2023 9:29 pm Reply with quote
Not only is this a terribly vague law, how would you even prove a staff member "knowingly" sold/lent something deemed inappropriate when there's no rating system in place.
Considering the volume of content available, it seems like it would just mostly be cases that waste time and money (and cost people their jobs)
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kotomikun



Joined: 06 May 2013
Posts: 1205
PostPosted: Wed Aug 02, 2023 10:27 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Both sections, the coalition said, would necessitate libraries and retailers to provide a space that was inaccessible to minors. They would force some to ban all minors from entry into the store or library entirely, or remove all possibly offending material beforehand.

Likely the actual goal of stuff like this. The right wing in this country would love nothing more than to ban libraries entirely. Free public access to information, computers, and other resources? Socialism! And even worse, knowledge tends to make people more liberal... the horror!
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revolutionotaku



Joined: 19 May 2011
Posts: 889
PostPosted: Thu Aug 03, 2023 12:10 am Reply with quote
Firefly251 wrote:
The Bible needs punishable if this goes into law as the bible is worse than msot other stuff they have issues with.

It's ironic that this law was created/written in the Bible Belt.
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borderparasol



Joined: 24 Feb 2022
Posts: 4
PostPosted: Thu Aug 03, 2023 8:56 am Reply with quote
WoodDude wrote:
encrypted12345 wrote:
Honestly, the most that should be done is that media should get an age rating and that should be the end of that. Obviously, no porn in the public schools, but normal libraries and universities should be free game.


Is it normal for porn to be in public libraries? I don't remember the last time I ever went to a library but it was probably as a kid over 20 years ago.

The main issue with obscenity laws is the vagueness. It sounds like they just need to specify what they mean by obscene material. I doubt anyone would object to not let adults push porn or ecchi stuff onto minors because that's pretty sus when an adult tries to get kids to look at explicit material, but if it's just something like Dragonball where you can see kid Goku/Gohan's donger then whatever, no big deal there.


Buddy, have I got news for you about Harlequin novels. It's the job of a public library to have books that their patrons actually want to read (not what a bunch of Republican bigwigs think that the patrons should read) and if your library has a contingent of little old ladies who read those Harlequins until they fall apart, then you're gonna stock The Greek Billionaire's Secret Mistress or books like that.

And the thing about that is that the explicit items ARE located in the adult section. The problem is that for the right wing, the definition of 'explicit' is 'whatever I don't like at the moment.' Laws like this tend to dis-proportionally target LGBTQ+ works, as lawmakers would claim that any book that mentions someone's gay or mentions that a character has two daddies is "explicit."
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