Self-Censorship

By: Melissa Weir-Pina

Self-censorship is the act of taking control over what information someone can or can’t learn about. In a library setting it means that there are certain librarians who use their personal ideas to decide what books there can or can’t be in the library’s collection. This is especially common when children’s books are being chosen, specifically children’s books that cover sensitive topics, also known as topics that some librarians deem ‘too inappropriate’ for younger readers. These sensitive topics range from sexual orientations, divorce, racism, substance abuse, etcetera, and no matter how well these topics were handled in the books, or how well written the book is, or how the topics has been explained in a way that children can understand without their innocence being completely ruined, librarians still feel like children should not be reading these books. And why do librarians self-censor? Well, it can be for a multitude of different reasons, the librarians could be afraid of what people will say when they see those books in the library, it could be because of their own personal biases, or if the book is a children’s book, then the librarian could be worried about what sort of questions the children will ask after they read the book. There ae plenty of reasons as to why librarian self-censor, those are just some of the most common ones. There are also several questions around the topics of self-censorship, like does everyone self-censor? How does one recognize it? Should it be avoided? And if we should avoid it then how do we go about doing it? 

First off, does everyone self-censor? The short and straight answer is no, not everyone does it. It all depends on opinions; everyone has a different take on what information should or shouldn’t be known by the general public. The most common people who are guilty of self-censoring is parents, teachers, and librarians, and they are usually trying to keep certain pieces of knowledge from kids, as to why kids are usually the number one target of someone censoring something, it could be because people believe that a child’s innocence shouldn’t be ruined, or it could be because adults feel like children need to be a certain age to start learning about come topics, or it could be that adults just don’t want to go through the hassle of trying to explain complicated topics to kids in a simplified manner so kids can understand it. While there are librarians who do self-censor, there are also lots of librarians who are adamantly against self-censoring, librarians who want people of all ages to learn new things at the library and know that libraries are meant to be a place where people can go to learn about any topic under the sun. 

Second, how do you recognize self-censoring? If someone is trying to keep information from you with your consent, then that is self-censoring, that’s all self-censoring is, the act of withholding information without your knowledge or consent. If you are about to start reading a book about climate change and all of a sudden one of your parents takes to book from you and then makes up some sort of excuse for why you can’t read the book, then guess what, they are probably trying to keep you from learning new information and are self-censoring. If a book in your school library suddenly gets banned and when you ask why it was the teacher or principal or school librarian tells you the book was inappropriate, then what probably happened is a kid brought the book home, the parents probably didn’t approve of it, and the parents probably complained to the school about it, leading to the book being banned, and that is also an act of self-censorship. 

Thirdly, should self-censorship be avoided? This is something that depends on your opinion; Some people think that some people shouldn’t know certain topics, and then there are people who think that nobody has the right to decide what people can or can’t learn about. However, it should be known that the act of self-censorship is a direct violation of the Access to Information Act, an act that provides Canadian citizens, permanent residents or any person (or entity) present in Canada the legal right to obtain information, in any form, that is under the control of a government institution. So, at the very least, librarians, or schools, deciding to keep certain pieces information from the public, is a violation of a law, so that is something that should be taken into account if you’re considering trying to keep information away from someone. 

In conclusion, the act of self-censorship has a lot of factors to take into consideration, there isn’t only one way to look at it. Some people are self-censoring, and they don’t even realize it, while other people are fully aware of what self-censoring is and are completely against it. Like most controversial topics, there’s no clear answer on what to do about self-censorship, or on how to avoid self-censoring, especially since there are people who don’t know what self-censorship is. Personally, I don’t think self-censorship should be encouraged, everyone has the right to learn whatever they want and keeping information from people is dangerous and almost always comes back to bite you, no information should be kept from you without your knowledge or consent. 

Antell, K., Strothmann, M., & Downey, J. (2013). Self-Censorship in Selection of LGBT- Themed Materials. Retrieved March 30, 2020, from https://journals.ala.org/index.php/rusq/article/view/3458/3722 

Kimmel, S. C., & Hartsfield, D. E. (2019). “It Was … the Word ‘Scrotum* on the First Page”: Educators’ Perspectives of Controversial Literature. Retrieved March 30, 2020, from https://go-gale-com.eztest.ocls.ca/ps/i.do?p=AONE&u=ko_acd_ac&id=GALE|A599185264&v=2.1&it=r&sid=AONE&asid=7b478f02 

Citizenship Canada. (2019, March 29). Access to information and privacy. Retrieved April 2, 2020, from https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/corporate/transparency/access-information-privacy.html