S.C. law limits kids’ access to some books in public libraries
COLUMBIA, S.C. (WRDW/WAGT) - Public libraries across South Carolina are now under a new mandate to restrict children’s access to certain books.
ers say it’ll help protect kids from getting their hands on inappropriate books without their parents knowing about it – but libraries say this new requirement is a problem.
If libraries don’t follow it, their funding from the state could be at risk.
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“This is about making sure that we protect the right of parents to make sure they know what their kid is reading and looking at,” said Sen. Josh Kimbrell, R-Spartanburg. “Nobody’s banning books. Nobody’s saying you can’t read stuff if your mom and dad say it’s OK.”
Kimbrell is among the Republican lawmakers who sponsored this new requirement – that county libraries must certify to the state library that their children’s section doesn’t contain any books or materials that appeal to the prurient interest of kids under 13.
State code defines this as “a shameful or morbid interest in nudity, sex or excretion and is reflective of an arousal of lewd and lascivious desires and thoughts.”
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The new rule says kids must have explicit parental permission to access these books.
The South Carolina Library Association says there are already local policies to address these concerns.
This statewide rule, they say, undermines local control over those policies – which are set by the local library board, whose are selected by county councils.
“When you centralize this type of proviso, this type of policy, you are, again, taking away local from local families, and you’re trying to make it a one-size-fits-all for the state of South Carolina, and that’s not how any state should operate,” said Angela Craig, president of the South Carolina Library Association.
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The state library is now responsible for overseeing this requirement – and also takes issue with it.
It calls the new rule vague and subjective – and says it’s outside the scope of its own authority.
The requirement is now in effect as a temporary law in the new state budget.
So lawmakers would either need to renew it again next year to keep it in effect or a permanent law that codifies this rule.
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