8th Circuit Panel Says Arkansas Can Protect Kids from Inappropriate Material in Public Libraries

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Above: The book It’s Perfectly Normal sits on display in the children’s section of the Craighead County Public Library in Jonesboro. The book contains inappropriate illustrations depicting nudity and sexual activity.

On Thursday, a three-judge panel from the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Arkansas can enforce a law protecting children from inappropriate material in public libraries.

In 2023, the Arkansas Legislature passed Act 372 — a good law that generally prohibits giving or sending a child harmful material that contains nudity or sexual activity. The law also eliminates exemptions for libraries and schools in the state’s obscenity statute, and it clarifies how library patrons can work to remove objectionable material from a library’s catalog.

However, before the law could take effect, a coalition of libraries in Arkansas led by the ACLU filed a lawsuit challenging portions of Act 372.

As a result, U.S. District Judge Timothy Brooks in Fayetteville blocked two important sections of the law — Section 1, which makes it a Class A misdemeanor to give or send a child harmful sexual material that contains nudity or sexual activity, and Section 5, which clarifies how library patrons can work to remove objectionable material from a library’s catalog.

Fortunately, Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin appealed that bad ruling to the 8th Circuit. On Thursday, a three-judge panel overturned the lower court’s decision — meaning Arkansas will finally be able to enforce Act 372.

This is really good news for families all over Arkansas.

Act 372 isn’t just about library books — it’s about standing up for children. Family Council has heard repeatedly from people who are deeply troubled by obscene and inappropriate children’s books that some librarians have placed on the shelves of their local libraries.

For example, the Jonesboro public library has been at the center of multiple controversies over its decision to place books with sexually-explicit images in its children’s section and for failing to adopt a policy that separates sexual material from children’s content.

The library in Jonesboro even went so far as to post on Facebook that it isn’t the library’s responsibility to protect kids from obscenity. Following the controversy in Jonesboro, voters opted to cut the library’s millage in half.

Other public libraries in Arkansas have included graphic children’s books in their catalogs and failed to separate sexual material from children’s material as well.

Some of the people who testified publicly against Act 372 in 2023 signaled that they actually wanted to be free to share obscene material with children. That simply isn’t right.

Libraries ought to be held to the same standards as everyone else when it comes to giving harmful or obscene material to a child.

Families should be able to take their children to the library without worrying what they might see, and taxpayers should not be forced to subsidize graphic novels that depict explicit images of children engaged in sexual acts.

We are grateful to Attorney General Griffin for tirelessly defending Act 372 in court. This is a good law that will protect children all across Arkansas.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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Trump Administration Cuts Millions of Dollars to Planned Parenthood Sex-Education Programs

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Late last month the Trump administration moved to eliminate millions of dollars in grant money to Planned Parenthood and other organizations teaching comprehensive sex-education to teens.

The Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program traces its roots back to former President Obama in 2010. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) awarded federal grant money to “evidence-based programs” designed to prevent teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.

Under the program, organizations — including Planned Parenthood — were able to apply for federal funds to teach these teen pregnancy prevention programs.

But evaluations showed the programs generally turned out to be either ineffective or counterproductive.

For example, Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest received $4 million to teach teen pregnancy prevention. An official evaluation later found that students were actually more likely to become pregnant after going through Planned Parenthood’s program — not less.

In other words, Planned Parenthood’s multimillion dollar sex-education program did exactly the opposite of what it was intended to do.

On June 26, HHS announced it would not renew most of the pregnancy prevention grants offered under this program.

The Daily Signal obtained a cancellation letter saying after reviewing the teen pregnancy prevention curricula, HHS “believes that some curricula normalize adolescent sexual activity and are not age appropriate, as they contain overly sexually explicit or pornographic content that is not necessary to achieve the TPP program’s statutory mission.”

The grant money comes to a total of $67 million.

Arkansas knows from experience that Planned Parenthood’s comprehensive sex-education is not the way to go.

In the 1980s and 1990s, public officials in Arkansas promoted comprehensive sex-education, but the programs failed to have a meaningful impact on teen pregnancy and abortion in the state.

But in 1997 the Arkansas Legislature and Governor Mike Huckabee began promoting abstinence education in Arkansas.

From 1997 to 2005, Arkansas’ teen birthrate decreased 17%, and Arkansas’ teen abortion rate plummeted a staggering 48%.

Governor Huckabee’s abstinence education model was so successful in Arkansas that it drew national recognition.

Given all of this, it seems like the Trump administration is making the right call by cancelling these teen pregnancy prevention grants.

The Daily Signal says that besides canceling these grants to Planned Parenthood and other organizations, “HHS announced two new grant opportunities that promote body literacy in place of radical gender ideology, abortion, and contraception. The opportunities will ‘focus on programs that do not promote material that depicts, describes, exposes, or presents obscene, indecent, or sexually explicit content, including content that normalizes or promotes sexual activity for minors.'”

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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State Library Board Advances Rules to Protect Children from Explicit Material

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Above: The book It’s Perfectly Normal sits on display in the children’s section of the Craighead County Public Library in Jonesboro in this file photo from 2024. The book contains inappropriate illustrations depicting nudity and sexual activity.

Last week, the Arkansas State Library Board advanced a proposal to help protect children from sexually explicit material in public libraries.

Arkansas is home to many public libraries all across the state, and the library board helps oversee them. But in recent years, parents and policymakers alike have expressed serious concerns about obscene and explicit children’s books that some librarians have placed on the shelves of their local libraries.

At its May 8 meeting, the Arkansas Library Board unanimously approved a proposed set of rules requiring public libraries to ensure children under the age of 16 may not check out sexually explicit materials without parental consent.

Under the rules, libraries would also keep explicit material separate from other areas of the library, and could not knowingly advertise explicit material. Libraries that fail to abide by the rules may not receive state funding.

These proposed library rules are a step in the right direction, because too many libraries in Arkansas have made headlines for promoting sexually explicit material to young children.

For example, the Jonesboro public library has been at the center of multiple controversies over its decision to place books with sexually explicit images in its children’s section and for failing to adopt a policy that separates sexual material from children’s books.

The library even went so far as to post on Facebook that it isn’t the library’s responsibility to protect kids from obscenity.

The controversy in Jonesboro escalated to a point that voters finally decided to reduce the library’s millage in 2022.

Other public libraries in Arkansas have included explicit children’s books in their catalogs and failed to separate sexual material from children’s material as well. Some of these books actually contain explicit images of minors engaged in sexual acts.

Families should not have to worry about what their children might see in the children’s section of a library, and taxpayers should not be forced to subsidize library material that is explicit or obscene. These new rules from the State Library Board could help address those concerns.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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