The library in north suburban Deerfield believes parents, not librarians, should determine what their kids can see or play. Children of all ages will soon be able to check out R-rated movies or violent video games without a parent or guardian there.
"To tell you the truth, I'm not quite too pleased with it," said Lauren Alex, mother of an 8-year-old son who loves video games. "If I'm not here with him, I'm not quite sure what he's going to be picking up and bringing home. And I don't think I'm gonna be too happy about that."
Deerfield Library Director Mary Pergander said if parents don't want their children to check out violent video games or R-rated movies, they can simply sign a form that will block access to all films and video games.
Pergander insisted the library simply wanted videos to have the same policy as printed materials.
"We said children of all ages could access any written materials, magazines, music, and yet there were these subsets of our collections that we were saying they couldn't get access to, on their own, without a parent," said Pergander.
[Snip]
Deerfield is not alone. Libraries across the country have the same policy.
FreePint Shop:
