Movies are rated to inform parents about the material in the film and video games have a similar system to warn parents, so why don't books?
Logically parents should be monitoring what their children read in some way. But seriously, how can a parent know exactly what is in their childs book without reading it personally? If any of you read at the rate I do, you can see that your parents cannot keep up. And I really would prefer that my parents don't make me wait for them to read a book first before I can begin.
So a rating system does seem to make sense.
But doesn't a rating system ban books in a way? If a 14 year old kid is denied the right to read a book by an organization that thought it was a little too gruesome, isn't that destroying his rights as an American? What about me? Can I not read a Stephen King because he is a little scary? Frankly, that would piss me off. And think about this. Everyone eventually learns the harsh, cruel, scary facts of the world at some point in their life, who are we to deny the process? Everyone should be able to get scared.
So what do you think? Yay or nay?
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I think here in a little bit, a blog will be released about the classic Frankenstien. You might enjoy it.
On the one hand I agree that rating books takes away freedom and people should most definitly be able to read what they want. No one should have the authority to tell another that a book is too scary or too gory; I'm sure we can all decide for ourselves whether or not we are brave enough to dive into the world of Stephen King. On the other hand I do think there should be some kind of boundaries cautioning readers. I agree completely with "categorizing" or "cataloguing" books into certain groups such as Childrens, young adults, and adults. If parents are really that concerned with what their child is reading shouldn't they note what group the book is in?
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