Have you been to
the teen section of your local bookstore lately? Seen anything questionable?
Maybe even worrisome? Young adult literature is a genre that has been
questioned ever since the 1900’s. As YA fiction has gotten increasingly darker
in modern times, the controversies get more intricate. Many parents and teachers
want YA books off the shelves completely, while authors and students fight to
keep them in stock. There was a daunting a total of 307 challenged books
reported in 2013, many of these being very popular and considered extremely touching.
One bright idea suggested to stop all the silly controversies over YA books was
to put age-ratings on them, like movies or video games. YA books with
questionable content would Access to YA
fiction should only be limited to teens by means of age-ratings.
When small
children get their hands on dark young adult fiction, they are liable to get
exposed to terrifying ideas and gruesome actions that could permanently scar
them or simply terrify them. Age-rating
would stop kids from reading heavy YA books that frighten or traumatize them.
For example, in the novel “Rage” by Jackie Morse Kessler, self-harm is shown in
graphic and gruesome detail. “She had sliced her arms to ribbons, but the
badness still remained, staining her insides like cancer. She had gouged out
her belly until it was a mess of meat and blood, but she still couldn’t
breathe.” Would parents want their 8-year old child reading this kind of book?
I don’t think so. Describing self-mutilation in such horrifying detail would
scare most kids under the age of 10 who manage to read it. Kids should not be
exposed to self-harm at a young age. Mother Amy Freeman from Maryland agrees.
She recently went to her local Barnes and Nobles to find a book for her 13-year
old daughter yet saw nothing suitable for her kid to read. She found it was all “vampires and suicide
and self mutilation, this dark, dark stuff” She did not buy any of the YA books
for her daughter. Age ratings will keep books like “Rage” away from kids, and
keep parents like Amy happy.
Profane actions
or language in YA books can negatively influence kids who read about them. If young children are reading about these
dark and suggestive activates like they are normal, they may think it is ok to
do these things. For example a study done at Brigham Young University showed
that YA books have twice the rate of profanity as video games, and that
characters who swear are typically portrayed as rich, cool, or popular. It may
not be conscious but by reading these books, the idea enters the kid’s heads
that cursing, or other inappropriate activities, are ok, if not cool. Kids who
read these books may even start cursing at a younger age because of them.
Another example of this is author Megan Coz Gurdon who stated that “books
focusing on pathologies help normalize them and, in the case of self-harm, may
even spread their plausibility and likelihood to young people who may otherwise
never have imagined such extreme measure.” YA books that have main characters
who curse or self-harm may teach children that doing these things are acceptable,
or may even help you or make you better. If age ratings are applied to YA books
with profane content, they will become unavailable to kids who may be badly
influenced by reading them.
Although young
adult literature has gotten increasingly darker, many teens experience the
topics discussed in these books in their everyday lives. Many even say that YA
books that include heavy topics help teens deal with their issues when they
read about them. Author Sherman Alexie stated in his article “Why the Best Kids
Books Are Written in Blood” that many teens who read his book have been plagued
by the same horrors depicted in his book story such as poverty, domestic
violence, and bullying. This may be true, however, Alexie fails to acknowledge that
the opposite may happen and a teen who has gone through these issues and reads
Alexie’s book, “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian,” may just be
reminded of these terrors and become more traumatized. Another example of this
is author Patrick Ness who commented on the topic saying “If it’s got 18
certificates for adults, then younger children will look it out when their
parents are not around…Children are great self-censors. They know what they can
read and they know what they want to read and if you don’t give it to them
they’ll find it somehow.”Ness is suggesting that kids always know what best for
them to read and will always is able to find it and read it. This is untrue
because parents and teachers will usually know a lot better than a child
whether a YA book is appropriate for them to read. Age-rating will further
improve this, and will let parents and
kids know what is and isn’t age appropriate.
Modern YA
fiction exposes kids to many heavy and controversial topics. There has been a
lot of talk about banning versus keeping YA books on shelves, but there is one
simple solution: age ratings. Age ratings on YA books would keep graphic,
violent, or dark books away from kids who could be badly influenced by reading
them. Age ratings also let parents and teachers know to keep these books away
from kids who could potentially become frightened or traumatized by reading
theses YA books. If kids are not exposed to the topics discussed in YA books at
young ages, they will not grow up with dark ideas imprinted in their mind,
potentially causing them to be emotionally damaged as teens or adults.
Age-ratings would also allow older and more educate teenagers to read the books
that help them cope with things in their lives. Age-ratings are a non-extreme
way to limit children’s access to YA literature.
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