Information Equals Censorship?

This is an excerpt of a email I received from Beth Yoke, the Executive Director ofthe Young Adult Library Services Association, a division of the American Library Association.
----------------------------------
Ms. Voss,

Thank you for taking the time to contact YALSA and for sharing your
thoughts about book ratings.  Thanks also for all that you do to connect
your son with books that are appropriate for him and your family and for
helping him develop a lifelong love of reading.  At this time YALSA has
no plans to institute a book ratings system.  As a division of the
American Library Association, we uphold the Library Bill of Rights as
well as the guidelines associated with it, including the statement on
labeling and rating systems:

http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/intfreedom/librarybill/interpretat
ions/labelingrating.cfm

 ........
Thank you again for getting in touch and please don't hesitate to
contact me if you have further questions.

-Beth

------------------------------------
If you carefully read the content on the link above you will see that that ALA equates providing information about the content of a book that users could potentially use to limit the use of the book for themselves or their children is censorship. It does not matter the intent of those providing the information.
I find this whole thing very ironic. In the past, those banning or burning books did so to keep information from the public because they were afraid of what they would do with the information. Now, libraries are keeping information from the public because they are afraid of what the public will do with it.
And it is not completely true that libraries are bastions of access to what is available under the First Amendment.
A comment on Facebook: Just ask them why they libraries don't carry porn then.
We are given information all the time to warn us, or help us make a decision. Another comment on Facebook about this topic was:
" What about Nutrition Facts on food and ingredient lists? That's labeling and could be considered food censorship."

To Call or Not to Call......

So I got a form postcard from Harper Collins. The front was handwritten. The back said:
"Thank you for your inquiry.Please contact HarperCollins Customer Service at 1-800-242-7737 for assistance in meeting your request."

So does that mean if I call them they will put ratings on books? The person at the bottom of the totem pole, asked to answer calls to the Customer Service line, will "meet my request?" Really?
Should I try it? I really want to do it, just because it tells me I will get assistance to meet my request. It says they will do it. But I am worried that I will get angry and frustrated.

What do you think?

My kids books WERE rated R......

In my efforts to find others willing to join me in my campaign, I found this blog post. I don't know how I didn't find it before, but it basically says what I want everyone to know. Take a look.

http://januarymagazine.blogspot.com/2010/01/are-your-kids-books-rated-r.html

Supreme Court's disappointing ruling

Last week the Supreme Court, in a 7-2 ruling, ruled that video game sales cannot be restricted. California had a law that video games rated M (for Mature, similar to an R- rating for movies) could not be sold to minors. The Supreme Court said that violates free speech and the sales cannot be restricted.
This is very disappointing. The content on video games rated M is intended for adults, those MATURE enough to understand what they are seeing. Hopefully they are for those who are MATURE enough to understand the real cost of violence, the real consequences of violence. Most children, especially those with parents who have the incomes to provide video game consoles and the games that go with them, are not exposed to real violence that they are seeing and committing in those games. Their exposure to violence is you can just shut it off when you are done. No consequences for killing, maiming, raping, etc......
Just like books, children need to be old enough to take the information they are reading and put it in proper context. That is difficult to do when it is presented before they can do that. It takes maturity to really be able to see the consequences of your actions in a far-reaching way.
I know there is disagreement about this, but violent video games do not have a positive effect on anyone, mature or not. We limit the sale of alcohol and tobacco to minors. Firearms sales have restrictions. We limit the sale of products to minors all the time, to protect them.