Know Before You Read
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"I believe pornography will follow the trend of the tobacco industry in public perception,” Dawn Hawkins, executive director of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, said in a statement. “Pornography today is pervasive and popular, similar to smoking in the 1950s, but as the harms become apparent, both the general public and elected officials will demand that a multi-disciplinary public health approach be implemented across the country to address it.”
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Unlike books' much younger cousins in the media family - movies, television programs, music, and video games - books remain unrated. This didn't used to be an issue, but graphic and explicit content and materials have made their way into books that sit on public school shelves. Even elementary schools have been found to contain extremely graphic content. To protect our children from this obscenity in public school libraries, where parents are not notified and cannot be present to help their children choose wisely, we have begun reading and rating books. Our ratings provide page numbers and quotes. The page numbers may vary depending on which version of the books was read and whether it was in print or digital. Nevertheless we present the evidence so that parents and schools may choose wisely, and choose to protect our vulnerable youth from the addictive stimulant, pornography as well as all other materials that are harmful to minors.
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​Not all of the books are objectionable. Some have 0/5 ratings, and some like To Kill a Mockingbird and Turning 15 on the Road to Freedom, deal masterfully with important, yet difficult topics such that parents may want to gauge the age of exposure for their child. The inclusion of books in this list is because the book was reviewed and we have information to share with parents.
In April 2016, Utah Gov. Gary Herbert signed a resolution that declared
Pornography is a Public Health Crisis.
The measure calls for education and policy changes to stop pornography exposure and addiction.
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Start video at 29:57
The American Library Association had a webinar in May, 2020 in which their legal counsel, Deborah Caldwell-Stone, laid out their plans to bring sexually explicit content into schools. These are her own words, "...The thing that needs to happen most is sustained messaging that reframes this issue that takes it away from the idea that these are sexually inappropriate for minors and promote them as diverse materials and programming that are about inclusion and fairness and protection of everyone's right to see themselves."
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