Kids free to check out R-rated movies at library

Posted at: 07/23/2009 10:09 PM | Updated at: 10/29/2009 10:17 PM
By: Jeremy Jojola, Eyewitness News 4; Charlie Pabst, KOB.com

Your kids can't get them at local video stores, but we found it's no problem at the local library. Hundreds of "R" rated movies are up for grabs for kids to check out—no questions asked.

The works of Plato and Shakespeare are at your fingertips, along with movies like "Tropic Thunder" and "Wedding Crashers."

You can't get the movies at Best Buy if you're under 18, but if you're a bored kid with a library card, it's like a free ticket to countless rated "R" movies.

On the shelves of Albuquerque's library, an almost endless collection of DVDs—a big chunk of them rated "R" by the Motion Picture Association of America for adult material and violence. Films like "Pulp Fiction" and "Reservoir Dogs" are available, movies known for their vulgarity, drug use and extreme violence.

Over 6,000 DVDs are available in the Albuquerque Public Library's system available free for check out for anyone.

Kids under 18 can't buy these movies at Best Buy and Target, and would get denied seeing "R" rated flicks at local theaters.

At Albuquerque's library, 14-year-old Olivia had no problem walking out with five DVDs—all rated R including "Wedding Crashers," "Tropic Thunder" and "American Gangster."

She wasn't carded or asked her age at the counter.

Olivia's mom, Bernadette Martinez, had no idea the films were on the shelves.

"As a parent, you don't want your kids seeing anything that's inappropriate," Martinez said.

The library's not doing anything wrong or illegal. It's everyone's first amendment right, even children, to have access to whatever is on the library's shelves.

"Her parents did give her permission to do that when they sign for her library card," Library Director Julia Clarke said.

Clarke says the library's liability for R-Rated movies ends once parents sign their child's library card application.

On the application, once you sign, you agree to monitor all materials checked out by your child.

"We also suggest to parents they monitor the materials," Clarke said. "They don't have blanket permission, they are really are supposed to be looking at what their children find in the library."

It's certainly not your grandmother's library anymore.  The library says it carries movies because it now caters to people of all generations and tastes.

  Albuquerque Public Library patron info

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