(2)Why are books not rated?

I have been thinking about this quite a bit over the last couple of days and I thought it only fair to talk about why we may NOT want to rate a book.

Other than the typical freedom of speech whiners who would spout off something about it restricting their freedoms...

I really don't understand that at all anyway.  Rating is not a restriction in any way.  Most sane people would agree that there is some material that is not appropriate for people under a certain age.  And sure that is going to very person by person; also area by area but that does not mean all content should be readily available to all ages.

To me this is a simple case of parents cannot do everything and simply relying on society to police your children is not enough.

I also know that ratings are not perfect.  There are some things that are rated R that are not as bad as others.  Ratings simply give a base to start with and with that it gives people a place to start off with and make a life decision either for a child or for themselves.  I know a 50 year old who choses not to watch rated R movies... her choice.  I watch them but understand that its her life and rather than having to rely on what others tell her about a movie she can see a general rating and make the decision other wise that is a lot of movies to have to  filter through.

There are far more books published every year compared to movies and this is simply a way to give folks a high level filter to help them along their way.