The new Digital Public Library of America’s banned books digital access initiative is worth criticizing*. Is it good to get banned books to kids? Yes. Is this the solution? No, especially because it does what other institutions with broader reach and name recognition are already doing, such as the Brooklyn Public Library.

But there are several other issues to consider:

1. You need a specific app to do this. The poorest kids, the ones most harmed, do not have a phone or Kindle or anything to do this.

2. The systems to destroy public goods can continue forth.

3. It's localized via app, unlike BPL's digital library. There are privacy issues galore.**

4. Parents banning books are monitoring their kid’s devices.

Most importantly, one of the biggest reasons book banners give for why books need to be removed is that the kids can get them elsewhere so why have them in the library. Doesn’t this just bolster their argument? Did we not just hand over control to them? We just told them carry on.

I want the kids to be able to use their libraries. The ones they have access to already. I don’t want to keep seeing more and more bandaids on a wound that keeps gaping and gaping and gaping.

We need SOLUTIONS, not bandaids, and SOLUTIONS are not in the excuses that the book banners give for their efforts.

Eight years ago, I wrote about how “free” ebooks don’t help poor kids (bookriot.com/free-digital-ebooks-dont-h…). The same truth still stands. Access to these “free” ebooks via a third-party app is not helping the kids who need the help. It’s only further marginalizing them.

*twitter.com/dpla/status/168207436432433…

**The Palace Project app doesn’t encrypt data and allows third party data sharing play.google.com/store/apps/details?hl=e…