East Texas representative proposes bill to protect children from explicit content

TYLER – According to reports from our news partner, KETK, an East Texas representative filed a bill in late February meant to protect children from sexually explicit material in public libraries.

State Representative Daniel Alders filed House Bill 3225 on Feb. 24, which would require public municipal libraries to restrict accessibility to sexually explicit material for minors.

“As radicals continue to target our children with obscene content tucked away in our children’s reading material, it’s high time for Texas lawmakers to take a stand and ensure our public libraries take the necessary steps to protect our children,” Alders said.

The representative said under this proposed legislation, any book having sexually explicit content must be removed or relocated from sections targeting minors and libraries must prohibit minors from checking out the books.

“Libraries must conduct an annual review of the materials in their collection to keep the bookshelves for minors free from sexually explicit content, and they must implement a petition process to immediately review specific books for concerned parents,” the release stated.

If it is determined a book has sexually explicit content, the library has up to 45 days to remove or relocate the book to a different section, and update their system so minors cannot check out the book. According to the release, if a library violates the policy they cannot receive taxpayer funding for the year following the violation and are liable for a fine of up to $10,000 per violation.

“Our children should be our highest priority, and we must take a stand to ensure that our young kids are not in danger of being exposed to inappropriate, sexually explicit content in the minors sections of our libraries,” Alders expressed.