Resolution 000135

..Title Authorizing the Committee on Education to conduct hearings regarding the appropriateness of the policy adopted by the Free Library of Philadelphia which lowers the age required for eligibility to obtain access to r-rated and other adult material in the City's libraries from age 14 to age 12 or to those who have completed the sixth grade of school. ..Body WHEREAS, In October 1999, The Free Library of Philadelphia lowered the age required for eligibility to obtain a three-year, adult library card which would give the holder unrestricted access to r-rated and other adult material in the City's libraries; and WHEREAS, In October 1999, the age of eligibility for an individual to obtain access to adult materials in the City's libraries was lowered from age 14 to age 12 or to those who have completed the sixth grade of school; and WHEREAS, Children the age of 12 or older, will now have unrestricted access in City libraries to such sexually explicit and violent films as Saving Private Ryan, The Thin Red Line, Pulp Fiction, and Natural Born Killers; and WHEREAS, The minimum age to obtain access to r-rated films in establishments such as movie theaters is 17 years of age; and WHEREAS, Because exposure to the violence and sexual content of adult materials could have a profound effect on the health and mental well being of the younger citizens of Philadelphia, the newly adopted policy of the Free Library of Philadelphia which lowers the age necessary to obtain access to adult materials should be justified to City Council by mandating that Free Library officials appear before Council and provide City Council members with all justifications, criteria, and studies used by the Free Library of Philadelphia to adopt such a policy; and WHEREAS, Decisions regarding whether a 12-year-old child, or older child, should have access to all library materials, including adult and r-rated materials, should be the primary responsibility of the parents of each individual child; and WHEREAS, Parents previously had the authority to decide whether their 12- or 13-year-old child should have access to all library materials, including adult materials, and now the Free Library of Philadelphia has taken that authority away from parents. RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, that it hereby authorizes the Committee on Education to conduct hearings regarding the appropriateness of the policy adopted by the Free Library of Philadelphia which lowers the age required for eligibility to obtain access to r-rated and other adult material in the City's libraries from age 14 to age 12 or to those who have completed the sixth grade of school.