Parents Who Limit Their Kid's Reading. Right or Wrong?

This may not actually be a debate but it is something I have been thinking about...parents who limit their child's reading.

I have been raised under a non-religious household, and my reading has never been limited by my parents. I read "Animorphs" starting in 4th grade (those are pretty dark books), I read Stephen King's "The Tommyknockers" when I was 11 (but didn't understand it), "The Golden Compass" when I was in 7th grade and all kinds of Stephen King novels (few of which I really understood), and there are various science fiction and fantasy books I have read and liked. As of today, I feel that I am morally well-balanced. To get personal, I have read books that have tons of *pointless* sex scenes, and I am still a virgin.

I remember the first time I read "The Golden Compass", I did not have a positive experience with the literary material. I really had no idea what was going on in the story since the author did_not_footnote_anything, and I had a limited grasp of what the "fantasy" story meant. I read fantasy books all the time now, LOL. I re-read the book just recently, found it to be an enjoyable story. It had magic in it and anti-church views, but I thought it was an interesting commentary. Going back to when I first read it, I don't remember it twisting around my developing views of the world, nor did its violence, or the other books that I read, make me more any more aggressive. Seventh grade was a tough year, I was thinking rebellious thoughts and writing gory stories, but that was because of the influence of a bully kid in my class, and some other factors, all of which are buried in the past by now. Those were independent of my reading material.

Going to books I have read in the now, or in the years to 2008, none have influenced my thoughts on sex in real life. I had to read an *awful* novel for my Literature class, "Veronica", and it had so so many of those smut scenes in it, I just skipped right over them in an attempt to find the plot (the book had none!). Reading the "Harry Potter" series hasn't made me into some kind of witch. Other books have shown me different viewpoints, but have no affected my own on a matter ("Starsplit", for example...a science fiction written in a Christian conservative viewpoint...and I'm still a Moderate Atheist). Very few, if any of my books have actually influenced me, and if anything else, it's the people around me, not printed paper, that have really affected me.

That's why I don't think it's right for parents to limit what their child reads. I believe that nothing is sacred anymore by the time a child is 11 years old, based on my own experience. A single book probably won't affect their mind very much, or will have none at all. If they have questions about a part, discuss it. There will always be smut in books (definitions may vary), and children are talking about this stuff when they're at least in 3rd grade. Their first place to gain knowledge about it will likely be in the book they pick up when they're 10 or 11, which will include "deviant behavior" and all. I don't find magic harmful in books either; I think it's one way to get out of the real world once in a while. I haven't heard any cases of children going Satanic or something after reading "Harry Potter". Okay...so_far there's no documented cases of that. You can argue with me over "Harry Potter" if you want.

Blah, there is my two cents, cha-ching! I just caught myself unconsiously writing another essay, I guess this is what happens when you're an English major, LOL. Write your opinions, this is what my essay is, an opinion essay.