BRAZOS COUNTY, Texas (KRHD) — Texas lawmakers are looking to ban minors from checking out library books with explicit content.
- House Bill 3225would prevent anyone under the age of 18 from checking out books with sexually explicit material from public libraries without parental consent.
- Texas lawmakers created the bill to protect Texas children in public libraries and to empower parents by giving them the ability to control their children's access to such content.
- House Bill 3225 has passed the Texas House and is now pending review in the Senate State Affairs Committee.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
“Unmonitored, checking out books that have explicit content, parents might not have as much opportunity to prevent kids being taught things that they don't agree with or that they think they shouldn't be taught at that young of an age,” Bryan resident Clayton Staheli said.
Clayton isn't the only one that feels this way — some Texas lawmakers are looking to ban minors from checking out library books with explicit content.
15 ABC asked Staheli what kind of impact explicit content has on younger members of the community.
“I think it could negatively impact people, it could destroy what parents might wanna teach their kids the way they want to teach them.”
House Bill 3225 would prevent anyone under the age of 18 from checking out books with sexually explicit material from public libraries without parental consent.
It's an unwelcome move for Noe Canchola.
“I personally feel like it's a bit too excessive. I think there's never been an issue of that, that I've heard of, previously,” College Station resident Noe Canchola said.
While some neighbors believe parents are the sole gatekeepers for that type of information.
“I think a parent has the right to teach them about those kinds of things, and it ultimately is actually the responsibility of the parent to teach them," Staheli said. "I don't know necessarily that even schools or other groups should be teaching kids about it."
Others believe we should avoid keeping kids in the dark.
“I think they'll be much more shielded about things, and I don't think that's ok. I think the part of growing up is just getting to know, like, how the world really is,” Canchola said.
“I think you need to educate your kids about what they potentially might see at the library instead of completely banning it from everyone,” he added.
