1. Bick

    Bick New Member

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    Should parents be able to ban their children from reading certain books?

    Discussion in 'The Lounge' started by Bick, Jun 30, 2007.

    I really want to read the Anne Rice books, since from the one I got to read half way through was really, really good. I'm just not allowed to read books like that, thanks to my mother. I was half way through, secretly reading "An interview with a Vampire." Then my mother saw what I was reading and wala, got it taken away.

    She even tried doing that with the Harry Potter series, but I made a fit when she tried to take them from me. I'm almost 17, shouldn't I be able to read what I want?
     
  2. WhispWillow

    WhispWillow New Member

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    Your 17 and she wouldn't let you read Harry Potter or Interview with a vampire!

    Interview with a Vampire , it can be quite sinister at times.. but still!
    And Harry Potter!?!

    Well, yes, you defiantly should be free to read what you want, just like you should be free to date who you want and try things at your freedom

    I guess she's just being protective of you.. just gotta convince her that your old enough to make your own decisions on these matters
     
  3. Cogito

    Cogito Former Mod, Retired Supporter Contributor

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    My opinion, parents should not censor reading, but they should consider talking over difficult subjects if they see their child expressing an interest.

    When I was 5 or 6, I was going through boxes of paperbacks in my frandmother's attiic, and found an entire carton of Perry Mason books. I was sitting up there reading them, and my mother walked in to see what I was up to. She didn't try to stop me, but later that day came back with a stack of Hardy Boys books and Ken Holt Mysteries. I was immediately hooked.

    But she never, ever tried to stop me from reading any book I got my hands on.
     
  4. Raven

    Raven Banned

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    I agree the only thing i wouldn't want my kids reading a romantic novels of an adult nature.

    Books like harry potter are most certainly acceptable either way. But I like to think great knowlege comes from books and some of the best stories told.





    ~Raven.
     
  5. Bick

    Bick New Member

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    My mum's like highly religious. Like I'm going to start doing witchcraft because I read about it in a book!

    I understand on the adult romantic books, but vampire's and magic are just silly to me.
     
  6. WhispWillow

    WhispWillow New Member

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    Maybe she's afraid you might become a vampire or as you said .. a cackling witch, riding on a broomstick, with bad boy Harry Potter and friends!
     
  7. Bick

    Bick New Member

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    ROFL, that made me giggle =P Thank you for the laugh.

    A vampire? Yeah =P I'll just go suck people's blood now.
     
  8. The Freshmaker

    The Freshmaker <insert obscure pop culture reference> Contributor

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    Heh. That's kind of funny. When I was growing up, my parents censored everything BUT the books I read. I'd read most of Stephen King's work by 13, I read The Vampire Chronicles and some trashy romance novels when I was about 16, and The Mists of Avalon (which, if you haven't read it, gets pretty graphic in places).

    I don't think there's a reason for her to censor you. But maybe it's good for now. When you get out on your own, you'll want to read all that stuff she's been keeping you from. Whereas most kids wouldn't care.
     
  9. WhispWillow

    WhispWillow New Member

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    You wouldn't be the first! What do you think hickeys really are?! The marks left by an apprentice Vampire is my theory..
     
  10. Bick

    Bick New Member

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    ROFL. Okay, that one just made me burst out laughing =P Luckily for me I'm in a room full of people who just looked at me wierd.

    :cool:
     
  11. Cogito

    Cogito Former Mod, Retired Supporter Contributor

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    Vampires who still suck at suckage?
     
  12. Heather Louise

    Heather Louise Contributor Contributor

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    i think books should be censored to some extent. like at the age of about six i wanted to read The Silence of The Lambs. now, having read it years later, i am glad that my dad didn't let me at the time. but at seventeen you should be ble to pick and chose what you read. does she not let you watch olderer rated films aswell may i ask? just sometimes to two go hand in hand.
     
  13. Max Vantage

    Max Vantage Banned

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    A-HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAA! I'll get you mah leeeetel pritteeeeeeee!

    Nope, reading such things didn't do me any harm. :p

    If I had children and they displayed a certain level of their own sense of maturity and understanding with certain adult topics then I probably wouldn't want to begrudge them with reading such things. I'm quite liberal but not stupid. If it offered them insight into topics whereby they get a profound understanding from the moral of the story then I would let them go ahead.

    But I would never allow them to read books authored from the likes of the Marquis De Sade or Sacha Von Masoch. Even though they deal with adult sexuality (which is argued as quite important nowadays for learning about sexual health education) there's nothing beneath them other than OTT perversion. There's no understanding.

    With something like Interview With The Vampire, what could a child learn from reading it?
    If they had any iota of intelligence they probably would have come up with the conclusion that if Anne Rice actually had any insight as an author then Louis De Pointe Du Lac, if he was pained with so much grief and devastation in his life, would've simply jumped into the sunlight and killed himself instead of pointlessly living for no actual reason :rolleyes: :rolleyes: (Thereby then neglecting any reason for such a story to exist ;) )

    lol Seriously though, if there's something to learn and the child in question shows a level of maturity to learn then simply let them learn through the beauty of prose. It's quite ignorant to shade them from such things.
     
  14. Cogito

    Cogito Former Mod, Retired Supporter Contributor

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    At age 6, do you think you would have understood enough of what was happening in Silence of the Lambs to be hurt by it?

    And what if your dad had said, "Ok, but if you read something that confuses or upsets you, come talk to me," then what?
     
  15. Bick

    Bick New Member

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    She won't let me listen to certain music, like slayer. Though I still listen. She hates that i listen to metal but she can't stop me from buying cds. Though she has been known to throw them away.

    I'm not allowed to watch a lot of movies :p She also makes me do a ton of chores in the house if i dun' go to church.

    She's just a bit... ionno how to explain it. x)
     
  16. Cogito

    Cogito Former Mod, Retired Supporter Contributor

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    I agree, Max. The best answer to darkness is to bring light to it. Hiding it just makes it more fearsome.
     
  17. Bick

    Bick New Member

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    I don't see all parents being like that though, just letting their kids read something they don't approve of.
     
  18. Cogito

    Cogito Former Mod, Retired Supporter Contributor

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    You're right. For my part, I always encouraged my kids to read everything they were interested in, and encouraged discussion. My ex was more inclined to limit their exposure to ideas that were uncomfortable to her.

    My girl friend also believes in filtering, and she has criticized me for not discouraging my daughter from watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer (due to the lesbian relationship between Tara and Willow). I respect her feelings on this even though I disagree with her. Her point that children are impressionable and do not yet have the skills to critically examine such ideas is well-considered.

    And yet I myself feel that the only way to develop those skills is through exercising them.
     
  19. Ferret

    Ferret New Member

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    The parts of your soul you refuse to recognize.
    I will buy my children comics, regardless of sex. I will get them hooked at an early age.
    As for the other books, I probably wont do anything. I'll just let'em learn for themselves.
    "Timmy, that's what you get for tring to understand anti-communist science fiction."
    I would let my kid read 1984 at any age.

    Buffy = win, fo shizzel.
     
  20. mammamaia

    mammamaia nit-picker-in-chief Contributor

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    as a mom of 7, grandmom of 18 [at last count] i say 'damn right!'... as long as you live under your parents' roof and enjoy their providing your food and other needs, they have a perfect right to expect you to live by their rules...

    and, till you're an adult, they have a responsibility to monitor your behavior and what you're exposed to...

    that said, i realize that some parents can take it too far... but they are the parents!...

    thankfully, my parents left my reading choices up to me, so i first learned about sex from the bard, margaret mitchell, and dumas pere, among others...
     
  21. pyrox91992

    pyrox91992 New Member

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    well, i think censoring books for the most part is just idiotic. i mean, some books yea, if they r like written porn pretty much, go ahead and censore it, but come on, anne rice and harry potter? nothing wrong with harry potter and anne rices stuff is more to do about vampires and witches, stories about creatures of the occult. big deal, i mean, its not like it would challenge ur faith in anyway shape of form, since i know ur mom is a lil overly religious. my dad tried to do the same thing to me, but he was unable to. i had read alot of books by age 9 that kids in highschool and in college were reading, not exactly the cleanest books but they werent bad and havent negatively effected me in any way. my father did all the damage ever done to me, and honestly may he rot in hell. and about the music thing, i mean, yea, everyone says most rock and all metal is 'devils music' but come on, its music, it is an ART!!! art is dying out in todays society, so y not allow different forms. i mean, come on, its just a bunch of notes with electric synthesizers and and screaming lyrics, it isnt demonic at all, not like u r participating in some sort of satanic cult or anything. certain ppl i would understand censoring of, but its not because of their music so much as how they present it. though alot of bands prove that wut they say isnt that bad.look at marilyn manson. he was challenged alot due to titles like 'antichrist superstar' but he showed us how the bible is no different, he quoted some of the most dark parts of the bible, with all the supposed 'demonic' things taht went on, proving that his lyrics r not even as bad as the bible. but that is besides the point, music is an art, it isnt neccessarily a religious controller, i mean, i know some pretty devoted christians and catholics who listen to his music cuz they dont believe that wut they listen to effects their faith. parents need to deal with the fact that us kids r not as immature as they think and there is alot we can handle. the sooner they realize that the better the relationship between parents and kids will b, my mom is too hard on me at times too, i hate it, though she says she cant give me any freedom. though if she knew half the stuff i have done already in life she would probably die. when someone says u cant do something it makes it more alluring and we kids r more likely to do it anyways. rules r meant to b broken, as the saying goes, and we kids r gonna break them.
     
  22. Heather Louise

    Heather Louise Contributor Contributor

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    i don'y know hjow much i would have uncerstood, but the is besdies the point. you shouldn't object children to cartain topics. the same as you wouldn't let a child watch a scary as hell 18 rated film, you should montitor what you children read when they are young. children do not need to know about everything. in the case of The Silence of The Lambs, there is things in that book that i simply would not allow a child to read about/watch/hear bout/whatever. it is unsuitable.
    Heather
     
  23. mammamaia

    mammamaia nit-picker-in-chief Contributor

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    to those of you who are underage and don't like having your reading habits monitored:

    kids will be kids, but parents must be parents... get over it!

    you may be a parent someday and then you'll know what it's all about... ;-)
     
  24. Crazy Ivan

    Crazy Ivan New Member

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    Just because maniac serial killers must be maniac serial killers doesn't mean they aren't maniacs and serial killers, to state the obvious.
     
  25. mammamaia

    mammamaia nit-picker-in-chief Contributor

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    huh?

    i was referring to the fact that parents have to 'parent'... as in do the things that parents do, such as guide/keep their offspring 'on the right path' and steer them away from what they feel isn't good for them... and limiting their reading to 'age appropriate' material is one of the ways they do that...
     

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