Keeping My Kids Safe from Materials That are “Harmful to Minors”

As a parent, I keep thanking my lawmakers for the stands they are taking against any materials that may be “harmful to minors.” Here in Georgia, Senator Jason Anavitarte proposed Senate Bill 226, a bill that would protect my children from encountering anything that may be deemed “harmful to minors.” I wish, when I as a kid growing up in Louisiana back in the 1980s and 1990s I had laws like this to protect me from some of the smut we had to read while I was in school.

Sen. Anavitarte’s bill keeps my children safe from encountering any “description of representation, in whatever form, of nudity, sexual conduct, sexual excitement, or sadomasochistic abuse,” and I am thankful for that. He is fighting to make sure that they don’t encounter anything at school that would somehow be “patently offensive to prevailing standards in the adult community as a whole with respect to what is suitable material for minors,” and if they do encounter it, he provides me with a well-organized plan to bring a complaint against the educators who seek to fill my children’s heads with such puerile filth.

I vividly recall during my childhood years in school encountering stories with “sexual conduct” and “sexual excitement” that made me feel uneasy as I squirmed in my chair, afraid to speak up and tell my teacher or parents about my…