CHARLESTON — The West Virginia House of Delegates debated the merits of removing protections for public librarians and school librarians from criminal prosecution in the off chance a minor encounters books and content some consider to be obscene. The House passed House Bill 4654 – removing bona fide schools, public libraries, and museums from the […]
  • WrenEnglish
    35•4 months ago

    As a librarian myself, this is horrifying.

    • The DoctorEnglish
      9•4 months ago

      A friend of mine quit his position at a library and moved away from WV last month. Just in time, it seems.

  • @[email protected]
    18•4 months ago

    State Code defines obscene matter as anything an average person believes depicts or describes sexually explicit conduct, nudity, sex or certain bodily functions; or anything a reasonable person would find lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value. According to State Code 61-8A-2, any adult who knowingly and intentionally displays obscene matter to a minor could be charged with a felony, fined up to $25,000 and face up to five years in prison if convicted.

    You gotta love when they say “average” or “reasonable”. Average people can judge their own lives, reasonable people can talk about subjects they are interested and have studied in some capacity, a random person who wouldn’t be asked to decide if a work has any serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value in normal circumstances can’t be an arbiter of the law.

    • bedrooms
      15•4 months ago

      anything a reasonable person would find lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value

      Err… bible?

  • @[email protected]
    10•4 months ago

    Honest question: what is so dangerous about children seeing nudity / sex in media? I understand that it could skew their perception of what reality is like, but I think a good book is often better at realistically depicting this kind of stuff than what they would find on the internet when the legal sources have dried up.

    • projectmoon
      13•4 months ago

      It’s not about that. It’s about targeting minorities, history they don’t like, etc.

    • @[email protected]
      7•4 months ago

      If they know what it is, they can identify what is happening if some of these adults behind this movement are trying to take advantage of them. With a fifth of the state population meeting the definition for illiteracy and the whole of it being #47 for education in the country, it’s not exactly surprising that the voters (writ large) aren’t familiar enough with how libraries work to prevent being duped into supporting this.

  • StorksforlegsEnglish
    5•4 months ago

    So are they going to end up with mostly empty shelves Desantis style?