Banning of Books in the U.S. Essay

â€Å" And shall we just carelessly allow children to hear any casual tales which may be devised by casual persons, and to receive into their minds ideas for the most part the very opposite of those which we should wish them to have when they are grown up? We cannot. â€Å" ? Socrates – Banning of books is the most common form of censorship. There were 546 known attempts to remove books in 2006, and more than 9, 200 attempts since the American Library Association’s (ALA) Office for Intellectual Freedom began to electronically compile and publish information on book challenges in 1990. According to ALA , there are four motivating factors: family values, religion, political views, and minority rights. While there are many arguments against censorship, I feel that banning of books can be justifiable in some ways. For example, books with sexually explicit graphic contents should not be viewed by children of certain age. Book banning happens commonly at home and in schools. While anti-book banning advocates fight for the rights of the children to read, it is also the rights of the parents and teachers to guide children. While I do not favor banning books either, I feel that our system should be careful as to what books are exposed and at what age. The minds of children are very impressionable and susceptible to corruption. (Becket, 2006) Restrictions are not necessarily curtailment of rights . For example, cosmetics cannot be used by children. Reasons: first, it may be detrimental to the skin of children, second, cosmetics are not made for children. As cosmetics is to the skin, books is to the mind. Some books are not made for children and some books may be detrimental to the minds of children. These restrictions take into account that children are not yet mature and is still inexperienced to take complexity of some issues. It is the responsibility of the parents to guide children and this extends to guide their children in selecting a good reading material. Teachers, as second parents to children, also share the same responsibility. Parents should also be aware enough of what books to filter and not. If the parents feel that they are capable of making their children understand challenged books, then by all means, they can have those books on their shelves. While it is true that censorship hinders the flow of information and ideas, sometimes ideas should be filtered for innocent minds. Time will come when those minds will be matured enough to absorb what is really on the books their reading. Time will come when those minds will be having their own preferences of books to read. Time will come when those mind will be ready to be challenged †¦. just like those books. References: 1. â€Å" Treasure your Freedom to Read, Get Hooked on a Banned Book†. ala. org. 19 September 2007. < http://ala. org/ala/pressreleases2007/september2007/bbw07. cfm> 2. Kennedy, Elizabeth. â€Å"Banned Books: The Who and the Why†. about. com. 3. Beckett, S. â€Å"Book Ban List Shouldn’t Scare†. dailytexanonline. com 2 October 2006