It’s normal to be curious about sex and hearing porn read out loud can lead to curiosity about it. Kids are curious! Their brains are hard-wired to explore, and their curiosity has led many young people into deep bondage to porn.
In January, The New York Times reported “Parents, activists, school board officials and lawmakers around the country are challenging books at a pace not seen in decades. The American Library Association said in a preliminary report that it received an ‘unprecedented’ 330 reports of book challenges, each of which can include multiple books, last fall.”
With all of these book challenges, there is surprisingly little research on exactly what impact hearing a pornographic reading from a banned book might have on a young person.
While extremist groups for parental rights are focusing on banning books, protectkidsonline.ca reports that “children as young as eight and nine years of age can easily come across sexual content on the Internet – and most notably graphic adult pornography.”
The extremist group chapters celebrate banning 30 books here and 45 books there, many of which have rarely been checked out, if at all.
Meanwhile, the leading online pornography site, Pornhub, founded a few months before the iPhone, was receiving millions of monthly unique visitors. “In November 2022 the site was visited 10.2 million times, making it the fourth most popular destination on the web.”
According to Abbey Wright at the Guardian, “If you put a phone in a child’s hand, you are putting porn in a child’s hand … don’t do it unless you are ready to speak to them about pornography.” I was shocked to discover that it is common for children aged six to encounter pornography online. This would often be pop-ups, or through being introduced to it by an older friend or sibling.”
Pornography is two clicks away, it’s whatever you want whenever you want it and it can be done without anybody else.
A young man spoke to covenenteyes.com about the issue: “This will be first time I’m saying anything about my porn issue, it all started out of curiosity. I’ve been hearing pornography but didn’t know exactly what it was, so I took my mom’s phone then, I didn’t have one googled it, saw the list of sites and that was it, I was around 14 years then.”
Another exchange reported by Protectkidsonline.ca: “What Julie didn’t know is that her 11-year-old son was listening to the conversation from the hallway. He heard the conversation and the word “pornography,” a word he didn’t understand because they hadn’t talked about it. Jason [name changed] did what any, curious young person might do, and he went to the family computer and Googled the word “pornography.”
Even a U.S. senator Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., has invoked strong reactions after reading aloud content from sexually explicit books found in public school libraries across the nation during a recent Senate hearing. An excerpt of All Boys Aren’t Blue, read aloud by Kennedy, provided graphic details of same-sex sexual activity.
Mothers for Liberty are arousing curiosity about sex by reading pornography, rather than using their energy to educate each other on the pornography available through their children’s smartphones. Rather than reading a paragraph, often out of context, and getting a book banned, a better use of their time should be advocating for legislation to address pornography addiction. They could be leaders on this issue. Not banning 25 books.
Nicole Monastersky Maderas lists five things parents need to know about talking with kids about pornography. (talkwithyourkids.org)
First, it’s everywhere. It’s the subject of a recent cover story in TIME magazine. It’s one click away on the Disney webpage. It’s available on every cellular device. Including your children’s devices.
Second, a generation ago, porn was different. Not only was access different; what used to be considered hard-core a generation or two ago is now the norm in mainstream media.
Third, porn is universally concerning because it affects, even damages children’ sense of their own sexuality and healthy relationships…less you forget let me remind you: any image that has been seen – intentionally or not – cannot be “un-seen”.
Fourth, curiosity about sex is natural and normal.
And finally, having open conversations sometimes means that parents need to initiate the conversations.
The Moms should readdress their priorities. Banning books is getting old and irrelevant given the times we live in. It’s becoming out of date.
Who wants to go to the trouble of taking out a book, when you can watch a video?
Vero Communiqué 
In case you are wondering, the public school
System doesn’t buy phones for children. Any electronic laptop or iPad provided by SDIRC & used in schools are setup to block all porn websites on the internet since they are illegal to be accessed on school property.
Parents by phones for kids not taxpayers. It’s up to parents to monitor a child’s phone usage. It’s not Moms for Liberty’s job.
Thanks for raising awareness about kids and porn. If the parents of kids prevent access to porn on phones like Moms for Liberty did at the library, kids will become better adults.
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You are correct that SDIRD blocks porn. Yes, it is up to parent’s to monitor phone usage. But how many moms are monitoring phone usage while advocating to remove books?
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*Moms for Liberty, not Mothers for Liberty
It is a parental right to allow your child(ren) a cell phone or not. It is your parental right and responsibility if your child does have a cell phone, laptop or any other device that could have access to pornography on it.
It is not the mission of Moms for Liberty to tell people what to do in their homes with their families. It is our mission to follow the federal, state and local laws that K-12 schools must be free of pornography. 234 books permanently removed from SDIRC schools for pornography and sexually explicit content from 10/2021 to current. And growing.
The first book the Senator mentioned was All Boys Aren’t Blue by George Johnson was permanently removed from SDIRC schools in 10/2021. Here’s the book report for it:
Click to access All%20Boys%20Arent%20Blue.pdf
Do you Thomas Hardy think this is appropriate for unaccompanied minors in k-12 schools?
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Have the mothers ever done a survey of how many of them have children with iPhones or smart devices? I agree the book was banned years ago.
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Our motto with Moms for Liberty is to is to organize, educate and empower parents to defend their parental rights at all levels of government. We aren’t the cell phone police and if a parent allows their child or children a cell phone or electronic device that is their parental right and responsibility. We have had discussions in our private group and at meetings for the best parental controls on electronic devices and Bark is a great one, so is Qustodio. There are many options to choose from that are free or a small fee monthly to keep children safe. These apps keep pornography and whatever the parent wants kept from their minor child/children from electronic devices. Just like with Netflix there are parental controls and settings. It’s not banning Netflix, it’s making it age appropriate. Just like a 16 year old cannot go to a rated R movie at the movie theater without a parent or guardian. It’s not banning that movie, it’s making it age appropriate.
So again Thomas Hardy I ask the question, do you feel “All Boys Aren’t Blue” is or is not appropriate for unaccompanied minor children in schools? Again it was never “banned” as it’s readily available at the public library and readily available for purchase today on Amazon, Barnes and Noble and more. Your working with children with the Young Journalists in the schools this question is very important to us.
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Jennifer, In 2021, the American Library Association’s Office of Intellectual Freedom named it the third most banned and challenged book in the United States of the year, and it was the second most challenged book in the 2022 list. Without having read the book, against this background, I would agree the book should be removed.
With regard to The Young Journalist, our enrollment is up 46 % this year over last year.
In 2019, your Moms co-founder, Tiffany Justice, visited our class at Glendale with other notables. The occasion was a visit from Wesley Wright, a representative of the Society of Professional Journalists. The Society of Professional Journalists is the oldest organization representing journalists in the United States. After his visit he wrote about the experience in a news magazine.
In his article, Wesley wrote that “County school board member Tiffany Justice was one of several who hope Hardy give the basic tenants of his program to a larger organization, like the Boys and Girls Club or the Gifford Youth Achievement Center(GYAC).”
In fact, this year we have enrolled 14 students at GYAC.
“What you’re looking for is an organization that has more resources,” Mrs. Justice said. “Not only would you not have to do all the work, you’d also be opening this type of program up to children that otherwise might not have access to it.”
Regarding smartphone access to porn, did you know that two of the biggest porn sites in the world have been blocked by Russia’s media regulator. Any Russian citizen visiting PornHub or YouPorn is now redirected to a simple message telling them that the sites have been blocked “by decision of public authorities.”
Russia’s media watchdog, Roskomnadzor, banned two of the world’s most popular pornography websites. The decision was made after two court rulings that declared that the websites ‘spread pornography’. Although pornographic content itself is not illegal in Russia, Russian laws ban ‘the illegal production, dissemination and advertisement of pornographic materials and objects’.
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I’m glad you agree the book All Boys Aren’t Blue should have been removed from minors in schools. The ALA is led by a self proclaimed Marxist woman and being removed from states across the country. They will be disabled soon enough and no once again no books are being banned.
I’m glad that Tiffany investigated what your organization did and does. That’s how people learn by valid research.
I’m glad we don’t live in Russia and we are blessed to live in the United States. For Moms for Liberty and my personal belief what adults want to do is their own right and business. Minor children is completely separate issue.
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I’ll investigate the ALA.
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