Banned Books Week - question

[Beth]

Last year(?) TLC posted a link to a Bennington, VT paper that had an
editorial about Banned Books Week (thank you, Heidi!) and I wrote to
the editor the letter I'll post below. I looked into the ALA's website
because I had a concern about a book being used in my daughter's class
and wanted to talk to the teacher about it, ironically, during Banned
Books Week. I know I've asked this question before, I'm just curious
about those of you who are parents and/or are involved with children:
Do you think children should have unlimited access to all literature?
Why or why not?

Beth
p.s. I did let my daughter read the book in question, I just wanted to
know how discussion would be handled. And I still think it's important
for parents to know as often as possible what their children are
reading and to try to read it, too, to be ready to discuss it in the
context of their own moral beliefs.

Dear Editor,

Please understand that I do /not/ advocate banning books. I simply
wish to point out that the statistics quoted: "There have already been
6,364 challenges posed to the American Library Association, and that
was only between the years of 1990 and 2000," do not take into account
the reasons behind a challenge. In researching the ALA's website last
year, I found that the ALA lumps a parent requesting a book be moved
from the children's to the adult section of a library in the same
category as those wanting to burn Harry Potter. In response to the
question from the media, "What if a child wants to check out Playboy
magazine?" librarians were told to answer that very few children would
want to check out material that was inappropriate for them. I think
that response is naive, at best.  Just as a movie theater owner would
not allow a six year old to buy his own ticket to a Restricted movie,
some literature best put "on the top shelf" until children are more
mature. I think the ALA does readers a disservice by thinking they can
not understand the difference.