Attorney: Shielding Children from Obscenity 'Common Sense,' Not Censorship
Oklahoma Legislation Would Restrict Sexually Explicit Material to Adults-Only Access
By Allie Martin and Jody Brown
April 7, 2006

(AgapePress) - State representatives in Oklahoma have approved proposed legislation that would require public libraries to place sexually explicit materials in a separate section and to distribute such materials only to adults.

Should House Bill 2158 become law, it would keep tax dollars from libraries that refuse to protect children from sexually explicit library materials. Representative Sally Kern's bill passed 60-33 and now heads to the Oklahoma Senate.

The bill states that unless a library has taken action to place "all children and young adult materials that contain homosexual or sexually explicit subject matter" in an area apart from the children and young adult sections, the state's Department of Libraries Board will not allocate state funds to that library. Says Kern, children deserve a period of "protected innocence" during which they are shielded from such material. Associated Press earlier quoted Kern as observing that contemporary advertisers apparently "can't sell toothpaste without sex," and that even the American Library Association is "out to sexualize our children." the rest