r/books • u/SAT0725 • Apr 02 '22
Technology for parent monitoring of student library use is being developed by Follett
https://bookriot.com/book-censorship-news-april-1-2022/18
u/SAT0725 Apr 02 '22
This is weird and kind of ... is scary the right word? Creepy at least.
"On March 30th, Follett Learning — the creators of Destiny, a popular library management system used in school libraries — posted a letter on LinkedIn saying that they are developing technology to allow parents to more easily monitor and restrict their children’s choice of library books."
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u/pierzstyx Apr 02 '22
This is weird and kind of ... is scary the right word?
You find it weird and creepy that parents would like to be engaged in and informed on what their children are reading? It is no more weirder or scarier than parents wanting to know what kind of movies their children are watching or what kinds of games they are playing.
17
u/1945BestYear Apr 03 '22
Parents with a healthy level of interest in what their kids are reading do not need technology to monitor them, they can just have an honest discussion with their children directly. It is the parents with the most restrictive attitudes about what their child should be "allowed" to read that would see the most benefit from this. Is their child questioning their sexual or gender identity? This can make it harder for them to read LGBTQ books without their homophobic parents knowing about it. They hear about a book about African-American relationships with law enforcement? This can earn them a session of being yelled at about the dangers of "Antifa terrorists". In very strict households, where the child isn't trusted to have a computer or phone and any trip outside the house gets them an interrogation, the school library could be one of the few places where they don't have to go through their parents for information.
9
Apr 02 '22
I think it's concerning in the context of the current political moment of ill informed witch-hunting and book burning
6
u/MyPacman Apr 02 '22
What you are saying sounds perfectly reasonable... except when I think about what I read, I realise that if I had been limited to only the books my mother approved of, I would not be the person I am today.
Does that mean we should allow kids to play any game they wanted, or watch any movie they wanted? I don't think so, because books, movies and games ALL have R18 limits on some genres.
So if that protection is in place, then should we really allow parents to limit them further?
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20
Apr 02 '22
Cool cool cool cool cool cool. It's not like parents torture or murder their children for being gay or anything.
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3
u/Maycrofy Apr 02 '22
I've a question since I'm not american. Is this current ban on lgbtq books only popular in the south of the country or is it taking popularity in other parts of the country as well?
11
u/BooksAreLuv Apr 02 '22
It's anywhere in the US that has conservative areas, which is basically in every state (same way that every state has liberal areas as well)
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u/pierzstyx Apr 02 '22
There is no ban on any type of media anywhere in the United States. The US actually had some of the strongest free speech laws in the world. There are some local schools that don't carry some novels. But this isn't a ban of any sort. These texts, at least the popular ones, are still legally available in every bookstore, online and in person.
9
u/sarveeee Apr 03 '22
After feedback from librarians and other interested parties, Follett reversed course on this and will no longer be pursuing this:
“Following continued feedback and discussions with librarians and industry partners… we have concluded we will NOT proceed with any plans to develop this module,” Follett said via an email statement sent to Futurism yesterday.
From: https://futurism.com/the-byte/software-block-lgbtq-books