Censoring Books

Yesterday, I read this post over on the Broke and Bookish about the Clean Reader App (read their post if, like me, you didn't know what the app was). The Broke and Bookish also linked to this article about the app, and I agree with pretty much everything written. I hadn't heard of it before and that post got me interested and I wanted to talk about censoring books for certain ages (in general, rather than just talking about the app).

I'm sixteen years old so I suppose that there are people who still want to censor books for people my age. Personally I think that I'm old enough so I can decide what to read myself, and I'm comfortable with a lot of the content of the books I read. Whilst I haven't read anything like Fifty Shades (purely because the writing quality makes me cringe), I'm comfortable with sexual content, swearing, violence and most of the things that normally need a trigger warning. Saying that, I understand that a lot of people my age are comfortable with different things and that's fine. 

My parents never really censored my books. Of course if they saw ten year old Emma reading Fifty Shades they'd take it away from me in an instant, but I was always able to pick what I wanted to read and I think that was beneficial. When the last Harry Potter novel came out, I was eight years old. I bought it on release day and proceeded to take two months to read it (because seriously, for an eight year old that book was basically War and Peace). 

Harry Potter is a children's series and it's not a great example, but I know a nine year old whose parents won't let her watch beyond the second movie because of how dark the series gets. It's obviously the parents' choice and I fully appreciate that, but for me that book was fine content wise. Sure, Molly Weasley said the word bitch *gasp* and a shitload of people died. Reading about Voldemort's totalitarian regime isn't going to turn me fascist, is it? Reading To Kill a Mockingbird won't turn me into a member of the KKK, just as I'm not going to tell a sweet little old lady to go fuck herself just because I watched Ted. I'm also not going to talk to my toys, either.

The first 18 rated movie I watched was Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. I was eleven (fyi, I didn't tell my parents). As far as I can tell, I haven't gone around slitting people's throats out of revenge. I don't plan on killing that guy who was mean to me two years ago, or the person whose dating someone that I used to like. I understand that people want to protect their kids, but I think you should give them enough respect to know what's right and wrong. Maybe you shouldn't let an eleven year old watch Sweeney Todd, but if they have seen it don't suddenly assume that they plan on promoting cannibalism. Give them respect, okay?

I fully understand that parents know their children better than I do. Who am I to say that every eight year old can cope with what I could at that age? A lot of them probably can't, and there is probably a large number who are more mature than I was.

Telling kids that sex is evil and sex is bad leads to things like slut shaming. Some people are all like 'hey kids, if you even hear about sex you'll rot in fiery hell next to Hitler and that children's TV presenter who was discreetly fired for getting caught snorting a line of crack cocaine. However, they obviously wouldn't know where that presenter went, so maybe they assumed he/she lives in the 'farm' where all the Blue Peter animals go when they 'retire'.

I'm not saying that you should make children watch Breaking Bad to teach them about drugs, or force them to read Fifty Shades to tell them that sex exists. You probably shouldn't do any of those things. I'm not saying that young kids should know about sex and drugs and rock and roll. When people get to an age when they are old enough, educate them rather than preach. Speaking as someone who just had to endure a school assembly saying DON'T TOUCH ALCOHOL FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIVES OR YOU'LL EITHER END UP HOMELESS OR DEAD, preaching just makes things worse. I don't even drink and that assembly had me LOLing and shaking my head.

Another example: When I was fourteen I read A Game of Thrones. It's an adult book clearly not intended for people barely into their teenage years but yet again I personally didn't have any issue with the sexual/violent content. Reading sex and swear words hasn't turned me into a teenage hooligan. Shock horror, I'm old enough to understand what I'm comfortable with. If the sex and beheading gave me nightmares I'd have closed the book.

Like I mentioned earlier, different people can cope with different things at different ages. What doesn't bother me could really concern others and that's completely fine. Hell, there are probably adults who'd be appalled by the fact that I use profanity a lot. It's their choice to disapprove of the words I use, just as it's my choice to say fuck and shit.

Thinking about that, we spend hours in English classes discussing fictional characters (read: fictional assholes) such as Iago from Othello and Curley from Of Mice and Men. In lessons, we discus the morality of these characters and even try to find goodness in who they are. I believe that there is good in 99% of people, but I find it strange how you could be awarded with an A for arguing that Macbeth was a wonderful dude even at the end of the play, yet you'd get a detention for writing he turned into a fucking asshole. 

Still, I had a friend whose parents completely censored and controlled everything she was exposed to, whether it be books or movies. I get that that is their decision and I do appreciate and respect that, but personally I don't agree with their decision. In year five (age 9/10) we had a sex education talk at school which had no sex and was basically the teachers awkwardly telling us that blood comes out your vagina every month and that's totally normal. Her parents pulled her out of this talk. I know it's not my decision to make, but personally I think that sheltering kids too much is not a good thing. Some people start periods as young as 9/10, and that's completely normal. Exposing your child to the menstrual cycle isn't going to damage them, is it?

What will be more disturbing is if you wake up one morning with blood between your legs, wondering what the fuck is happening and if you're slowly dying from the crotch up. 

I'm not a parent, but I think that the kids should be able to decide what they're comfortable with. If they really don't feel comfortable reading a sex scene or hearing the word fuck, that's fine. And obviously there are ages which are just too young, but sex, swearing, drugs and violence do exist in the real world. Isn't it going to be more of a shock when you hear a string of colourful vocabulary if you've never heard it before? 

I get that there is a limit and people of certain ages shouldn't be exposed to certain things, but I don't think that censoring books is a good idea. Once people get past a certain age, you should trust them mature enough to decide on their own what they're comfortable with.

So, what do you think?