HIKIND DEMANDS LIBRARIES REMOVE CHILDREN’S ACCESS TO PORNOGRAPHIC MATERIALS

NEWS FROM
ASSEMBLYMAN DOV HIKIND

July 10, 2013

Contact: Yehudah Meth                                                       For Immediate Release
718-853-9616 (office)
 

HIKIND DEMANDS LIBRARIES REMOVE CHILDREN’S ACCESS TO PORNOGRAPHIC MATERIALS

Assemblyman Dov Hikind (D-Brooklyn) is insisting that New York City Public Libraries take more responsibility in preventing children from accessing pornographic materials currently found throughout city branches. In a press conference this morning, the Assemblyman will be joined by concerned community parents who were shocked to learn that even the smallest children can easily obtain inappropriate materials that no retailer would ever allow a child to hold.

“I am not asking for censorship of any books for adults who want them,” said Assemblyman Hikind. “The issue is removing such books from the ready access of children. I am certain that the overwhelming majority—if not unanimity—of parents in our city would be appalled to find such books readily available to their children.”

Following complaints by constituents, Assemblyman Hikind’s staff surveyed numerous branches of the public library in Brooklyn where they found such inappropriate titles as Best Gay Erotica, Lux’s Practical Erotica Adventure, and Girls Who Score: Hot Lesbian Erotica, all clearly within reach of small children.

Under the library’s current system, children can check out any library book once they are 13 years of age—or even younger if parents did not realize such material was available when library cards were created for their children. Books can also be automatically checked out without the likelihood of any interaction with an adult librarian.

“Because of the way fiction books are placed on library shelves, inappropriate books often end up on the very bottom shelves, clearly within reach of the smallest children,” said Hikind. “This kind of content would never be allowed in schools nor placed within a child’s reach by retailers. Certainly our public libraries can do more to keep such books out of the reach of unsuspecting children.”

In a letter to the heads of New York City’s Public Libraries, the Assemblyman asked for immediate action to better protect the city’s children from inappropriate books their parents would never want them to see, let alone expect to find in the public library within easy reach of a child.