This week marks Banned Books Week, which highlights books that those in authority deem "inappropriate" for school aged children to read. This poses the question, is this censorship necessary? What about freedom of speech? Who is to say what is and isn't right for our youth to read.
In the age of social media, one might question if banning books is even worth it now, as there is unlimited access to basically everything, as long as one knows how to work a search engine. Banning books in a school could pose a reverse psychology effect on the children, and lead them to search other places for the literature.
With readership in America already in decline, is censoring books still the way to go? With books like Harry Potter on the banned books list, one has to wonder if it's even worth it. The series has amassed an immense following in over the past ten years, even though they are banned for "witchcraft". A more recent series that has found itself on the banned books list yet still growing in popularity are The Hunger Games which have been banned for the plot line of children killing children, yet they are making a movie based on the trilogy, which, though it will be PG13, will have the ability to be accessed by millions of people, whether the books are banned or not.
With new books being added to the banned books list yearly this is likely something that will not go away anytime soon, but with Banned Book Week every year there is a way to shed light on the issue and perhaps get youth's interest piqued into discovering these books and analyzing why they are censoring the literature that they themselves should have access to.
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