Suggestion for age restrictions/warnings

[Booklover1606]

When choosing a book to review, I feel that it will be helpful if a little more information is given regarding the content of the book, if it happens to be explicit or not suitable for sensitive readers. I feel that if people are warned about the book containing for example, swearing, explicit sex scenes or extreme violence, they will be able to make better choices in choosing a book to review. I also believe it will reduce the amount of people who do not finish reading and reviewing books. I suggest doing this through placing age restrictions on reviews for certain books or by including a warning in the description about this type of content.

[Lincolnshirelass]

I can see why you're saying this, but think it may be difficult to enact - firstly, children and young people mature, both emotionally and intellectually at different rates, and whilst one, say, 14 year old could still be a child, another could essentially be an adult. Then there is also the matter of context and/or presentation. I would be okay about any reasonably literate child who knows the facts of life reading about gently presented consensual sex in a loving relationship, but not about other kinds. Ditto violence. For instance, even though there is nothing more horrific than the Holocaust, if it presented in a moral and age-appropriate work (eg, 'The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas') and especially if it leads to discussion, then even quite young readers can (and arguably, should) cope with it but the glamorisation of mindless gratuitous violence is wrong..

[kandscreeley]

Most of the time you can tell just by looking at the genre (obviously if you are against sex scenes, you'll want to stay away from romance for the most part.) Also, looking at the book on Amazon can be helpful. Many times, it'll say something there. If you read the blurb carefully enough and choose your genre wisely, for the most part you can select well.