This Blog Is Rated PG-13

(I wanted to thank everyone for their comments on my last blog. They gave me plenty of food for thought.)

While at the library this week, I thought I would use their public computer to browse the humor blogs nominated for the Best of Blog awards. However, the library's censoring software stopped me from visiting the first nominee. The second site was "forbidden" as well . . . as was the third.

Finally, I was able to access a nominated humor blog. And what do I find in the first post? The phrase "punk ass mother*#@#$%." I censored the offending phrase myself here. Wonder why the library's censoring filter didn't. Maybe they thought any word associated with 'mother' can't be bad. Obviously, that's not the case.

Now if some ten-year-old stumbles upon this same site I did, she might call out, "Hea mom, what does "punk ass mother*$%^$#" mean? So much for protecting our youth from profanity, lewdness and adult content.

It's not easy to hide from children all that is racy or vulgar in our society. I remember chaperoning six junior high schoolers in an overnight field trip to the big city. On the last day, we visited a small shop in a mall for some souvenirs.

One of my charges decided to help himself to post cards by the hands full, thinking them to be complimentary. While I helped to restock the cards, another of my group was checking out the magazine rack. A Playboy magazine high atop the rack was accidentally shaken loose and the kid caught it as it fell. He immediately began flipping through the pages. Better catch him before he gets to the centerfold, I thought. But the shop clerk spied him first, told him to put the magazine back, and ordered him out of the store.

Back home, the parents asked for my version of why their son was ejected from the gift shop. The boy reported that he was merely trying to put the Playboy back after it had fallen. I said that wasn't exactly true, and explained how he was flipping through the pages. Well, the son had already claimed he had done nothing of the sort. The parents weighed what I had said against their pre-teen's credibility.

"We believe our son," the mother said.

That caught me a little off guard, since they knew me to be a youth coach and fellow parishioner at church. Oh, well. Trying to keep children from dirty words and pictures can be a challenge. Being oblivious to it all is one way to deal with it, I guess.