There was an interesting article on the BBC news website the other day regarding the access children have to books in light of the success of fifty shades of grey. In summary, it illustrates how most forms of media have definite categories of audience age restriction based on content be it printed age limits or the watershed however books have no such restrictions. Yes there are bits of legislation for the protection of kids but none specifically apply to books. More worryingly, as far as I can tell, none set down clear and concise guidelines on what is and isn't appropriate to sell to children. This means that in practice, a kid of any age can go into a bookshop and buy a copy of something sexually or violently explicit. Although most book sellers say they would refuse to sell something inappropriate to kids, this is entirely self-imposed. In any case, how young is too young and how do you tell?
First of all, is classification of the media really worth it? I would say so. Undoubtedly, there are some things that feature in films and television shows which are not suitable for younger people to watch either because they are particularly upsetting or because they are particularly violent or sexual in nature. This seems to be increasingly true as less and less is left to our imaginations. Although, to my knowledge, there have been no conclusive studies; intuition suggests that watching some of this stuff will not do kids any good (although I accept that sneaking into a film rated above your age is something of a right of passage and a fun rush too).
Where classification becomes more important still is in games where one is asked not only to watch the action but actively participate in it too. Although not a gamer, I understand that many are highly violent and some are getting increasingly sexually explicit too. On the one hand, you could argue that games offer a parallel universe to express the more unpleasant side of one's personality so it doesn't come out in real life. I'm not convinced however. I would also stake money on games having a part to play in the surge in violent crimes and the weapons culture around some groups of kids. Simply restarting the game to come back to life when you have been shot surely must distort one's perspective. Age is most certainly not an indicator of maturity however I can't think of a better method to arbitrarily apply.
Now what about books? In a world of increasingly technological entertainment it would be easy to overlook them. It would be equally easy to say that, these days, as long as kids are reading that's a good thing. Personally, I think both attitudes are rather complacent. Books can be extremely explicit. What's more, in my experience, books contain far more detailed and explicit accounts of sex than comparable films although violence tends to be toned down.
My first encounter with anything explicit in a book came in my early teens in the form of Ben Elton's "This Other Eden". The account was graphic and eye opening to say the least (I think it was also my first encounter with the concept of bikini waxing!). It was also bloody hilarious and is probably a much better reflection of most people's experiences than is portrayed in film (or maybe that's just me). Unlike adult films which would probably be watched on a low volume, late at night at a sleepover with mates; this encounter happened at about half nine on a Tuesday morning in my English class during personal reading time. The book in question had been retrieved from the school library I think pretty much exclusively because I had seen other books by Elton on my parents' shelves. Was it a bad thing? Probably not but it does illustrate the difference between books and the rest of the media... we would certainly never have been shown anything more than a PG film in class.
Part of the issue back then, in my opinion, was that there were children's books and adult's books. As soon as you had finished with the Secret Seven and Famous Five you were on to the grown up stuff. These days, there are attempts being made to cater for the 'young adult' market (Charlie Higson's books about the young James Bond being a good example).
I don't particularly think the transition I faced was a particularly bad thing. I read a lot of fantastic books when I was in my early teens that could only be considered as adult in their content. If anything, it was possibly a good thing. Reading adult books allows youngsters to get a (fairly safe) toe hold in the adult world. It allows one to explore one's personality and interests. Successfully recommending books to others is an excellent way of bonding and gently morphing relationships, especially those with one's parents. Or perhaps I'm being a little romantic!
A commentator on the BBC article argued that we will always be limited by our imaginations so allowing kids to read the explicit stuff is a lot less damaging than allowing them to watch it in all it's glory on the screen. I started writing this disagreeing with this statement. I thought, and still do, that a writer's craft is partly taking us beyond our imagination and where we thought our minds could go. I still think this is the case but reflecting on the Ben Elton anecdote I think understand what he means a bit more. Reading the sex scene there, my main reaction was amusement. It was written to be funny and funny it was. I could certainly understand and visualise the description of the naked woman involved (well as a young teenage boy, like most others, one of my main pass times was picturing naked women) but the details of the sex washed over me because I had virtually nothing to relate it to. You could argue that something similar is true of films and television but there it's so much more graphic and unavoidable.
That said, I still think that a degree of caution should be exercised with young people encountering explicit material in books. It may become less of an issue with the rising number of books written for younger people but until then, parents should keep a very close eye on what their kids are reading: even if they don't read it themselves, a few minutes on wikipedia or amazon should give enough detail. At this stage, I don't think a formal system of classification would either be helpful or possible. The variety within the book world is so great it would be impossible to slap arbitrary and all-covering classifications on books. It would also make the process of incremental experimentation, discovery and growth much more difficult which may well be a retrograde step.
In short, no simple answer to this issue. Well not one I can come up with. I think it's just a simple case of parents, guardians, et al beware.
JR
First of all, is classification of the media really worth it? I would say so. Undoubtedly, there are some things that feature in films and television shows which are not suitable for younger people to watch either because they are particularly upsetting or because they are particularly violent or sexual in nature. This seems to be increasingly true as less and less is left to our imaginations. Although, to my knowledge, there have been no conclusive studies; intuition suggests that watching some of this stuff will not do kids any good (although I accept that sneaking into a film rated above your age is something of a right of passage and a fun rush too).
Where classification becomes more important still is in games where one is asked not only to watch the action but actively participate in it too. Although not a gamer, I understand that many are highly violent and some are getting increasingly sexually explicit too. On the one hand, you could argue that games offer a parallel universe to express the more unpleasant side of one's personality so it doesn't come out in real life. I'm not convinced however. I would also stake money on games having a part to play in the surge in violent crimes and the weapons culture around some groups of kids. Simply restarting the game to come back to life when you have been shot surely must distort one's perspective. Age is most certainly not an indicator of maturity however I can't think of a better method to arbitrarily apply.
Now what about books? In a world of increasingly technological entertainment it would be easy to overlook them. It would be equally easy to say that, these days, as long as kids are reading that's a good thing. Personally, I think both attitudes are rather complacent. Books can be extremely explicit. What's more, in my experience, books contain far more detailed and explicit accounts of sex than comparable films although violence tends to be toned down.
My first encounter with anything explicit in a book came in my early teens in the form of Ben Elton's "This Other Eden". The account was graphic and eye opening to say the least (I think it was also my first encounter with the concept of bikini waxing!). It was also bloody hilarious and is probably a much better reflection of most people's experiences than is portrayed in film (or maybe that's just me). Unlike adult films which would probably be watched on a low volume, late at night at a sleepover with mates; this encounter happened at about half nine on a Tuesday morning in my English class during personal reading time. The book in question had been retrieved from the school library I think pretty much exclusively because I had seen other books by Elton on my parents' shelves. Was it a bad thing? Probably not but it does illustrate the difference between books and the rest of the media... we would certainly never have been shown anything more than a PG film in class.
Part of the issue back then, in my opinion, was that there were children's books and adult's books. As soon as you had finished with the Secret Seven and Famous Five you were on to the grown up stuff. These days, there are attempts being made to cater for the 'young adult' market (Charlie Higson's books about the young James Bond being a good example).
I don't particularly think the transition I faced was a particularly bad thing. I read a lot of fantastic books when I was in my early teens that could only be considered as adult in their content. If anything, it was possibly a good thing. Reading adult books allows youngsters to get a (fairly safe) toe hold in the adult world. It allows one to explore one's personality and interests. Successfully recommending books to others is an excellent way of bonding and gently morphing relationships, especially those with one's parents. Or perhaps I'm being a little romantic!
A commentator on the BBC article argued that we will always be limited by our imaginations so allowing kids to read the explicit stuff is a lot less damaging than allowing them to watch it in all it's glory on the screen. I started writing this disagreeing with this statement. I thought, and still do, that a writer's craft is partly taking us beyond our imagination and where we thought our minds could go. I still think this is the case but reflecting on the Ben Elton anecdote I think understand what he means a bit more. Reading the sex scene there, my main reaction was amusement. It was written to be funny and funny it was. I could certainly understand and visualise the description of the naked woman involved (well as a young teenage boy, like most others, one of my main pass times was picturing naked women) but the details of the sex washed over me because I had virtually nothing to relate it to. You could argue that something similar is true of films and television but there it's so much more graphic and unavoidable.
That said, I still think that a degree of caution should be exercised with young people encountering explicit material in books. It may become less of an issue with the rising number of books written for younger people but until then, parents should keep a very close eye on what their kids are reading: even if they don't read it themselves, a few minutes on wikipedia or amazon should give enough detail. At this stage, I don't think a formal system of classification would either be helpful or possible. The variety within the book world is so great it would be impossible to slap arbitrary and all-covering classifications on books. It would also make the process of incremental experimentation, discovery and growth much more difficult which may well be a retrograde step.
In short, no simple answer to this issue. Well not one I can come up with. I think it's just a simple case of parents, guardians, et al beware.
JR
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