AUSTIN — Restrictions on access to sexually explicit library books by teens and children advanced in the Texas House on Friday after an hours-long debate over censorship and adolescent growing pains.
Public libraries would be required to vet their children’s sections for sexually explicit materials every year and seek parental consent for those materials to be checked out by readers under 18, under legislation that won preliminary approval.
Libraries could face up to $10,000 per violation if they were found to have made sexually explicit materials — defined broadly in the bill — accessible to children under House Bill 3225, by Rep. Daniel Alders, R-Tyler.
The proposal passed on a party-line vote of 82-53.
“Our taxpayer-funded libraries should not be circumventing parents to ensure that children have access to this type of material without their parents’ consent,” Alders said. “We’re giving parents the opportunity to have a role in their kids growing up.”
Democrats argued the bill would ensnare books about basic adolescent sexual health issues, such as masturbation and premarital sex, that teenagers desperately need access to under their own terms.
Without easy access to these books — whether they’re nonfiction with pictures or fiction works of teenagers making decisions about sex — teens will turn to more dangerous sources, such as strangers on the internet, often before they ever think of talking to their parents, said Rep. Ann Johnson, D-Houston, Harris County’s former chief prosecutor over human trafficking cases.
“The over-sexualization of children is a problem, but it is not happening in your public libraries,” Johnson said. “For all these parents who always say, ‘I don’t want my kid to get access to this information,’ I promise you, they are getting access to the information. And the sources you should not be afraid of are in the public library.”
A Democrat-driven attempt to lower the age to 13 was defeated on a party-line vote of 86-58.
The legislation doesn’t ban minors from accessing the materials — it just empowers parents to control when that happens, Rep. Brent Money, R-Greenville, said.
“Neither this bill nor this amendment has anything to do with what kids can or cannot or should or should not look at,” Money said during the debate. “It’s about whether the parents should be the ones to decide.”
Democrats also unsuccessfully attempted to create adults-only sections and prohibit books from being included based on political leanings.
Opponents pointed out that the legislation would likely require parental consent for classic novels taught in high school — such as As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner and Catch-22 by Joseph Heller — while it excludes religious works such as The Bible.
Not to mention young adult fiction by authors like Judy Blume that helped her and other teenagers make sense of adolescent angst and sexual situations, said Rep. Erin Zwiener, D-Driftwood.
“The question is, are books really a part of the problem, or are they part of something that helps teenagers engage in a healthy manner?” Zwiener said. “I would rather have our teenagers read a book by Judy Blume than go on Reddit and see what the internet has to offer.”