A committee has been formed to create a new section of law that library collections, events, presentations and displays curated for the special needs and interests of children and young teenagers will not be allowed to include obscene written or visual materials, as determined by the Commission on Age Appropriate Literacy.
This House Bill 1045 was born out of Representative Jill Ford’s House Bill 509 as the committee’s substitute bill. Ford said the aim of the bill is to provide protections for children who are exposed to obscene materials in public libraries.
“We have a responsibility to protect our youngest members of society from being exposed to obscene materials,” Ford said. “The purpose of this bill is to prevent obscene and pornographic materials from being located and displayed in the ‘children’s section’ in our libraries.”
Ford said they believe they have narrowly tailored the language within the bill to not encompass works that have literary value. The material is determined as obscene if it meets the following requirements:
(a) To the average person, applying contemporary community standards, taken as a whole, it appeals to the prurient interest, that is, a lustful, erotic, shameful, or morbid interest in nudity, sex or excretion; and
(b) The material taken as a whole lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value; and
(c) The material depicts or describes in a patently offensive way, sexual contact specifically defined in subparagraphs
(i) through (v) below:
(i) Acts of sexual intercourse of any kind, normal or perverted, actual or simulated;
(ii) Acts of masturbation;
(iii) Acts involving excretory functions or lewd exhibition of the genitals;
(iv) Acts of bestiality or the fondling of sex organs of animals; or
(v) Sexual acts of flagellation, torture or other violence indicating a sadomasochistic sexual relationship.
(2) "Patently offensive" means so offensive on its face as to affront current community standards of decency.
(3) "Obscene material" as described above shall not include age-appropriate materials with diagrams about anatomy for science or content relating to classical works of art.
The bill also created the Commission on Age Appropriate Literacy, which will compile a list of obscene materials.
“The commission consists of 17 members with the State Superintendent of Education being the permanent chair,” Ford said. “The commission will be made up of parents, librarians, educators, and representatives from English or Literacy departments at any of our universities.”
In this bill, the process is laid out for a citizen of Mississippi who believes a material is obscene and isn’t appropriate to be displayed in public library collections, events, presentations and displays curated for those special needs and interests of children under the age of 15. Individuals may submit a petition to the commission to have the material added to the list of obscene materials.
If the petition is submitted more than 30 days before the commission’s next regularly scheduled meeting, the commission will consider the petition at that next meeting. If the citizen doesn’t agree with the ruling, they may appeal with the Mississippi Library Commission.
“The Commission on Age Appropriate Literacy is required to consult with the Library Commission and the State Department of Education to develop standards, pursuant to this statute, for them to adhere to when making their determinations,” Ford said.
To view the bill in its entirety, visit http://billstatus.ls.state.ms.us/documents/2023/html/HB/1000-1099/HB1045CS.htm.
