Should we censore books?
117939
I believe you mean things like pornographic magazines and books detailing sacrificial or demonic rituals?  One could argue that you could read even these kinds of books and learn from them, more than just was is written or pictured inside them.  The problem is, when you become wiser, you have more responsibility and more idea of what is right and wrong, but sometimes you do not know how to deal with this knowledge.  Perhaps you should read the passage from the Bible:  and I gave my heart to no wisdom and to no learning or folly.  And I perceived that all was vanity and vexation of spirit; for in much wisdom is much grief, and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.
1087380
As a public school librarian (K-8) I feel it is important to make available all books. However, budget constraints force me to choose mostly books that appeal to the most students. Captain Underpants may not be my choice for a student to read, however, if the students are asking for this title I will order it. What tends to drive my selection more is not self censorship but pressure from parents not to shelve a certain title. I try to preview  most titles for objectionable words, etc. and go from there. When I have a complaint from a parent I remind them that it is easier for them to check their child's book when they get home than for me to know what is acceptable for 500 plus students. An interesting thing to consider is the reverse, do we tend to pick books that appeal to us as a reader? I am a big Civil War buff and my library happens to have a dandy selection of books in the 970 Dewey decimal catagory!!!
121414
Most books are banned for completely ludicrous reasons anyway.
306880
wow, never thought of that before! I don't know about books, but I do know that the prevailing thought is that we should be careful what we let ourselves/our children watch on TV or play when it comes to videogames. I mean, there are all those cases, especially in America, where teenagers, and even younger children, have killed their families, strangers or fellow students. And have admitted that their behaviour was influenced by the violent videogames/playstation games they play. It's a modern phenomenon, and one we need to combat.\nBut I think books could definitely have the same effect, especially on the impressionable young mind. We should be careful.
689380
No, because that's taking away free speech. It's the same as telling people they cannot write or publish books....
854285
yes, if we want to go back to Hilter's Germany in 1938.  All dicators burn/ ban certain books to keep their people in ignorance of what is going on in the rest of the world.  I believe that reading is our best defense against dicators.
91177
NO.  I don't believe in the banning of any books.  Hitler started with the banning of books.  Next came the banning of ideas.  Finally, came the banning of races.  If you don't like them, then don't read them.
851308
I'm getting to the point that I cannot read or watch anything with violence in it, especially to children and animals. I had to stop reading horror books about 30 years ago because of that, and now I am just unable to watch a movie or any tv where there is violence especially involving children and animals. So I guess that's my personal taboo. \n\nI think people should talk about everything, and not be afraid to talk about everything.
151628
I don't agree with censoring certain things.  Personally, I don't like rotten.com, so I don't go there.  It's not my thing, but I don't see any reason to take it away from people who enjoy it.  I supervise my child online, so she doesn't see things like this.  But, I do think that there should be some age verification in place for sites like this one.  Most of them rely too much on the honor system for my liking.  \n\nI don't mind adults having access to adult themes and abult subjects online, but I think that parents do need a little help with keeping kids away from it.  The majority of the responsibility falls on me, as a parent; but I'd like some safeguards from the company as well.
1175107
They also seem to forget the whole 'wipe the dust off your sandals' thing.\n\nGeeze, if you're not even going to pay attention to your stupid book, why the hell should I even consider it!?
99476
I think the church has a lot of different motivations for why they take offense to certain books.  There is the simple offense, where people deem certain content inappropriate because it is morally questionable.  For example, a group of parents discover a book that includes violence or sex inappropriate for their children and want to protest or boycott to have the offensive content removed.  The motivation is straight forward not surreptitious.  The solution is to restrict expose for the children you are responsible for, but it is extreme to try to decide what is appropriate for other people.  The second reason is not so pure.  The church may fear the challenge of different ideas.  They may feel that it weakens their power or control over people and situations.  Case in point, literature that is pro-birth control or not anti-abortion may be banned by the church because it challenges what they say and they may loose control over people when individuals read the information and become educated by the information.  The church used to only allow the Bible to be translated into Latin so that only a select few could read it and they would only share ideas that they wanted people to be exposed to.  This gave them control to manipulate the masses; it robbed people of their right to make their own decisions and to educate themselves.  I believe the church still engages in this practice and it is manifested in the church becoming offended and banning.
864522
OJ Simpson has not been censored by the government, he has every right to say whatever he wants to in that regard.  But the publishers have every right not to publish his book or show his interview on TV too.  And they decided it was distasteful, disrespectful and downright disgusting, and so they used their right not to waste their money printing those books.
129575
A parent should be allowed to censor anything thier own child reads, but has no right to censor other children and what they are exposed to, therefore forcing thoer beliefs on others.
98227
Book banning is censorship and occurs most likely in schools and libraries.\n\nMany books that are banned are books about magic and spells - although not all of them are.\n\nIf you wonder why today's young people are so fascinated with them (magic and spells) it's because they were not exposed to them early in life with their parent's engaging them in conversations about it.\n\nI was exposed to magic and witchcraft through books and magazines before I was 12. Friends and I tries spells, which failed  - of course. I left that all behind long, long time ago.\n\nNot exposing children to certain subjects ONLY means they will be exposed as adults and may develop a fascination with them that can last for years.\n\nOf course the people who follow certain Christian faiths don't think about that and only blindly follow their current leader. So they contact the local school board and libraries and demand these books be banned.\n\nIf their are a large number of people demanding banning and no-one opposing the ban, then the books get pulled until enough people get pissed about the banning and petition them back on the shelves.\n\nA bookstore owner may pull these titles off of the shelf so that  they can continue to do business in a community. But, more often than not they WILL order books for customers. \n\nSince you can order almost any book online nowadays, book banning returns to it's roots of localized stupidity.
592052
As long as you make sure that nobody else than the people you would borrow the book get a copy of the scan it can be seen as fair use.\nDo not put it at any publicly accessible place - like a web server, a shared folder, etc.
146985
Whoa there knobstick, your words make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up!  I don't think that cartoons of religious figures should be printed or sketched if it means the same thing as shouting '" Fire" in a crowded theater, ie...ignorant protesting with killed persons involved.\nBut where do we end the censorship?  In India we could never even look right or left, heck they worship everything there don't they? Air, frogs, matchsticks?
817077
to read books and keep saying silence to people you dont know