TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Hillsborough County Commissioner Michael Owen says he wants to give parents the tools they need to protect their children.
On Wednesday, Owen proposed a plan to ask the county library board to come up with a plan to limit access to certain books and online material to children under the age of 18.
“These books, the authors will tell you, are not designed for youth,” Owen said citing several titles he believes have questionable content.
Owen said the books should not be available to children without parental approval.
“Commissioners, this isn’t about banning books. This is about protecting our youth and working with parents.”
Several parents at the meeting disagreed.
Rachel Perez is one parent who said she makes her living as a professional book reviewer.
“I would like to remind the board that no one else is the parent of my children, I am and I would like my children to have access to good ALA-affiliated libraries that foster critical thinking,” Perez said. “I am fully capable of parenting my children on my own. I do not need a nanny state implemented to help me parent my children.”
She added that limiting the books children can read will limit the ways they can think.
“I am concerned that there is a witch hunt happening against books that are bleeding over from Manatee County into our county and I am frustrated,” Perez added. “Books teach children to think critically for themselves and to form critical opinions of the world.”
Nicole Huff is also a parent who said she takes her child to the library and will allow them into the adult section for certain things she approves of.
“We go together and we look at books. We look at books in the juvenile section and the children’s section. We also look at books in the adult section because that’s where the Marvel Comic books are in the adult section,” said Huff.
James Shaw is with the Unitarian Universalist Church of Tampa. He read several passages from the bible, dealing with sex and rape and says if limits are approved, the Bible may be removed from public libraries.
“The inevitability of requesting that a book be judged for its dirtiest page and all of the rest of the pages be removed with it from the shelves is going to cause the removal of the bible from the shelves,” Shaw said.
Owen’s motion did pass, meaning the Hillsborough County Library board will now be tasked with coming up with ways to limit the access of some books to anyone under the age of 18.
