Mississippi’s new book-banning law denies minors access to e-books & audiobooks

Mississippi’s new book-banning law is resulting in public libraries denying minors access to OverDrive and Hoopla, two widely used databases for accessing e-books or audiobooks. While the law is ostensibly to keep children from accessing “sexually oriented” materials, such laws have been used to make non-sexual LGBTQ+-themed content inaccessible to young readers under the age of 18.

The state’s law, which went into effect at the start of this month, forbids public libraries and state agencies from providing minors with access to any digital resources or databases that contain “sexually oriented” materials.

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“Here in Illinois, we don’t hide from the truth, we embrace it,” said Gov. JB Pritzker.

The law defines “sexually oriented” materials as any “representations or descriptions, actual or simulated, of masturbation, sodomy, excretory functions, lewd exhibition of the genitals or female breasts, sadomasochistic abuse (for the purpose of sexual stimulation or gratification), homosexuality, lesbianism, bestiality, sexual intercourse, or physical contact with a person’s clothed or unclothed genitals, pubic area, buttocks, or the breast or breasts of a female for the purpose of sexual stimulation, gratification or perversion.”

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Because OverDrive, Hoopla, and Mississippi state libraries all don’t have age-based content restrictions to prevent minors from accessing such content, some public libraries have decided to deny minors from accessing the resources altogether.

First Regional Library, which oversees 14 library branches in Northern Mississippi, recently announced that anyone under the age of 18 will no longer be able to access OverDrive and Hoopla. This will deny young people of all ages access to e-books or audiobooks, including those that contain no sexually themed content whatsoever.

Hey, so, looks like no one under the age of 18 will have access to Overdrive or Hoopla in the state of Mississippi anymore.

Any Mississippi librarians have more info? https://t.co/r4mtq8NRy5 pic.twitter.com/M7PupvTdph

— Buttered Jorts (fka kelly jensen)