http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/20 ... yaoi-manga

http://kotaku.com/5952432/man-shocked-t ... brary-book

So a lot of you know that I work in a library, so these kind of stories really scratch that special interest itch when I see them. Basically, an uncle finds out his 10 year old niece checked out a yaoi manga that had gay sex in it. Sorta shocking, sure.

What amuses me is that the guy isn't even the girl's father. Maybe the parents are totally cool with this. I mean, it's not necessarily the uncle's place to raise his niece in place of the parents.

But let's ignore that. Let's suppose this guy was her father and he wasn't okay with this. It does strike me as weird that he would consider it the library's duty to decide what is okay and not okay for his daughter. That's not how libraries work. We can't throw out Twilight or Fifty Shades of Grey just because you find it unfit for your kid's reading consumption.

TLDR: There's no substitution for the parent. It's the parent's job to decide what is okay for their kids to see on TV, on the Internet, or in their books. Either be an active parent in your kid's life, or don't complain when society and the media raise the kid for you.

From the Kotaku article:
"What also sickens me is that people are going to the library to read this kind of content?" added De Nevers. "An anime comic book section is where people go to read porn? Around kids? There is no good coming from this being in our library."

This quote bothers me because it's pretty judgmental. A lot of people like different things. That doesn't mean their deviants or whatever. Besides, people who read the articles know the manga in particular was shelved in the adult section. So while I'm sure the "Won't somebody please think of the children?!" will stir up some attention, it's sort of unfounded sensationalist shit.

I mean, who was with the girl? They said they dropped off the girl at the library. Was she by herself? 10 years old is almost teenage age, but that's still too young for a kid to be alone in a public place by themself. What's the law say about this? Who was watching over the girl and making sure she picked up materials acceptable in her household? The real problem here sounds like there's a lack of parental oversight in this household. The uncle and grandmother are mentioned, but there's nothing about the parents.

Ten is too young for kids to be alone in public? Huh. I was reading Stephen King from my local library and walking kilometers in the dead of night when I was ten. Didn't screw me up none.

As for the smutty manga being in the library, the absolute best comparison is to stuff like 50 Shades. It's a library, and any kid with a card can go borrow Goosebumps or Mein Kampf if they want. If they don't understand the content, they can ask someone. We can not, as a society, continue ever-earlier to shelter the coming generations from adult life. Many ten year olds are interested in sex, some of them are already masturbating. Better they understand what the physical acts entail and the consequences before fumbling around and having "accidents" a few years down the road.

Sure, I think 10 years old is too young to be alone. Obviously I don't have any kids, but that's just fifth grade. I'd wait till a kid was at least 12-13 and had a few years of junior high in them before leaving them by themselves. Of course, it would depend on the kid's maturity level too. Like you said, some kids do mature quicker than others.

At least around here they wouldn't be able to check out something like this. It would be in the adult readers section, which contains materials the library is not allowed to lend out to children below high-school age. As I understand it this kind of setup is rather common.

At least the guy accepts that Google has those kinds of things. Although, I am confused how that is fine, but a library is wrong. Also, how much more restrictive is the nation's most popular browser than a library?

Personally, I'd like to keep my kids away from sex until they are mature enough to understand the context of the act. And I would not start them on rough sex. But, the fact is, I am not her father, or uncle. Maybe instead of raging against the library, he should speak to his niece, or preferably her parents.

Well, I remember in fifth grade we were already getting the sex ed courses (I only recall one girl whose parents opted her out of the program). So maybe she already has some idea. There's really no way of knowing since the article mostly focuses on the uncle.

But this is the classic example, isn't it? When people say "If parents aren't the ones teaching their kids about sex/whatever the kids will learn about it from society." Like you said, a kid could just use Google and find tons of stuff way worse than some yaoi rough sex. Honestly, if I ever have kids, I really worry about how I would monitor the Internet.

I have a kid,and i don't want him to grow up like this.It's obvious that society and media will ever interfere in my kid's raise,but is nice to be always on his side,to prevent cases like this to happen in the future.

My first question here is actually what section said yaoi book was in. I know in my old library they would actually sort them out according to maturity level, so the kids' section got stuff like Kitchen Princess and Tokyo Mew Mew whereas the teen section got Death Note and Bleach and stuff, and the adult section had Lady Snowblood and the yaoi. That's not to say I wouldn't sometimes find an inappropriate book in the wrong section, but for the most part it was pretty well organized. If the librarians didn't check the content of the manga and just threw everything into one section, that's definitely a black mark on them but even so, they're not responsible for what anyone checks out.

That's the beauty of a library really, you can check out anything at anytime and no one will care or judge you about what you're interested in. I know I checked out many age-inappropriate books in my time, and my parents did try to police my library books, but I just ended up hiding them and reading them anyway. At that age, most of the stuff just goes over your head anyway. I tried reading Mists of Avalon when I was 9 or 10 and just got bored cause it was all about sex and I didn't care about that stuff.

Now of course, if she's checking out a yaoi book, yeah, it's pretty obvious that she knows what this stuff is. Just means that the birds and the bees and the bees and the bees talk needs to happen a titch sooner.

It says in the article and in my first post that the title in question was in the adult section. Not teen nor children:

"The title checked out, “Hero Heel 2” was catalogued as Adult Non-Fiction."

In an ideal world, Ten is old enough. At ten years old, I was wandering around town and walking to friends houses, school, etc by myself....

... I hate to say it, but this is not an ideal world however. I was lucky to live in a relatively okay area, but the majority of the world is not. Kidnappings are quite common. Even in public areas. I've read reports of children being kidnapped from crowded shopping centers, when the parent was no more than 5 meters away. Keep an eye on your kids, people!

That said, In my opinion, as long as the Library is sorted correctly. Adult books put in the adult section (As they were in the artical in the OP), filters on the library's internet, etc... then the library has done it's job and it's responsibility. It's not the library's job to babysit for you. Heck, I don't know about the US but here, most libraries are run by volunteers. They are there because they want to make a difference in the community, but they are not there to be a free babysitting service.

This is actually something that's getting quite bad as of late. Years ago, parents took an active role in their kid's lives. Now, they just sit them down in front of the PS3, or Xbox, in front of the computer, or drop them off at a public library or an arcade, or even the local playground.

If you can't watch your kids for a certain time (And yes, in most parts of the world, a 10 year old GIRL needs to be watched...), drop them off with friends or hire a baby sitter. Do not drop them at a public library then go off and do whatever.

Thank you. End of rant.

EDIT: I just read the artical Take linked to.


First I have to ask, why wasn't he or her parents there when she was checking out books...? But more importantly, why didn't the librarian raise a flag? I know what I said above, but in retail outlets, shop keepers don't sell sexual games or movies to teens and kids*... Why does a library allow a child to checkout a sex book/comic? Maybe Take can answer this question?

* At least in Australia. Dunno about the US, again. Or Japan.

The library doesn't restrict books. Anyone can check out anything by anyone. That's the beauty of the public library system. Granted it causes problems here and there, but that problem wouldn't have happened in the first place if the parents had been paying attention.

I dont get what's up the guys ass about this sort of thing. It's always the parent's responsibility to teach their kids the difference of right and wrong. I was taught about sex when I was 10 (could of been 9, I'm not sure), I was taught about safe sex, pregnancy etc. I grew up to be an ok guy.

This guy may be the uncle, but it's ultimately the parent's job to decide what's appropriate for their child. That does not mean I think she SHOULD be allowed to read Yaoi manga, but if I was the parent, I would sit down and talk with her and ask WHY she reads it. It would give me a better understanding on her curiosities about sexual topics.

But while I do think the library goofed up some, and should of catagorized the manga better, I do believe that they are right in their defence on the subject at hand.

>First I have to ask, why wasn't he or her parents there when she was checking out books...? But more importantly, why didn't the librarian raise a flag? I know what I said above, but in retail outlets, shop keepers don't sell sexual games or movies to teens and kids*... Why does a library allow a child to checkout a sex book/comic? Maybe Take can answer this question?

Sure. Like you said earlier, it's not the library's job to babysit kids/raise kids, etc. I mean, if I see kids beating each other, I'd run over and stop that, but it's not really my job to decide what is ready for this kid I don't know. Maybe their parent is totally cool with them reading graphic man sex. That's a perfectly fine way of raising your kid.

I mean, part of it is professionalism. It's my job to check stuff out to people. Not to make snide comments and be judgmental. "Oh, checking out 30 romance books, eh? Have you ever thought of going out and getting a real man or something?" Obviously this is an extreme example, but you get my point right? Suppose that girl really likes yaoi books. It would be really messed up if I were like, "What? You're too young for these books, come back when you're older." That'd be really embarrassing for that girl, and it'd be kind of not cool of me to be telling her what she should or shouldn't be reading. Who am I to say, really?

Finally, at our library we have an automatic checkout system. If kids wanted, they could just check out whatever they wanted by themselves. Again, this falls upon parents to be responsible for their kids. If you don't trust your kid, don't let them have their own library card. Don't let them go to public places unsupervised, etc. Kids can get away with a bunch of stuff if parents aren't paying attention.

I'm kind of wondering now though. How graphic can the sex scene be, even if it is an adult manga. I'm pretty sure they can't draw genitalia since it's Japan. I'm just not really convinced by two Ken dolls rubbing up against each other can ever count as graphic.

Edit: Our library actually has the manga divided into the children, teen, and adult section. Which is a bit annoying since that seems a bit too spread out (Combine teen and adult already)

>I'm kind of wondering now though. How graphic can the sex scene be, even if it is an adult manga. I'm pretty sure they can't draw genitalia since it's Japan. I'm just not really convinced by two Ken dolls rubbing up against each other can ever count as graphic.

Genitalia are totally okay as long as you do not show penetration. A good chunk of manga can get away with only a black bar obscuring a small portion of the penis or the vagina. Really, there might as well be no black bar. Actually, the manga tend to get more censored in the States, as I've definitely seen a JP and US version of the same manga where the JP version had the penis partially obscured by fuzzy white cottonballs or something but the US version just completely erased the penis to have a white Ken doll space.

Obviously it depends on the manga/distributor. Actually, June is one of the ones who do the Ken doll stuff, whereas Dark Horse is a bit more graphic, but they usually don't do yaoi. Tokyopop actually got pretty explicit with FAKE about 10 years back.

How old were you 10 years ago?