"New Provisions Suggested: (1) As we have said, we are not anxious that the ordinary law-abiding bookseller or distributor should have to undergo the stigma of a criminal prosecution, and this was the main reason for entering into arrangements with the Associated Booksellers and Gordon and Gotch. At present, however, criminal proceedings afford the only real way of testing the position even where there is an honest difference of opinion. We think a better procedure could be devised, and the Select Committee may be invited to deal with this matter.
"(2) A number of comics which are not strictly indecent within the meaning of the Act are nevertheless objectionable from other points of view. In many the ethical standards of the characters are low. The quality of the print and illustrations varies from the indifferent to the very poor, and must have a serious effect on children's eyesight. In a number of comics the grammar and vocabulary are likewise bad.
"It is said that children learn from what they see and hear around them. If this is so it would appear that the assiduous reading of comics tends to counteract the work of teachers which costs the country so much.
"An Inter-departmental Committee in 1952 recommended the introduction of a system of registration. The Committee's original recommendations were: that publishers or importers of comics should apply for registration of every title and that only suitable titles should be registered. The sale of unregistered comics was to be an offence. This procedure may be preferable to the subsequently suggested system of automatic registration followed by de-registration upon complaint.
"Registration of comics, of course, amounts to censorship. There is, however, no question of literary merit or the spread of knowledge, and the view that an adult should in general be free to read what he likes does not apply in the case of publications primarily intended for children. If it is accepted as proper to censor films there can be little objection to censoring comics.
"We therefore suggest that the Select Committee might consider whether an authority might be set up to approve and register comics. There could be an Appeal Board similar to that in respect of films to consider complaints against any decision of the registering authority.
"If this suggestion is unacceptable an alternative might be an amendment to the legislation to be introduced enabling the Court in the case of comics to take into account as one of the factors in considering whether they are objectionable matters of grammar, language and visual standards."
The present Committee is of opinion that there is a good deal of force in the suggestions put forward in this part of the report of the Department of Justice, and our view is that these suggestions should be referred to the Minister of Education with a request that he consider them favourably and forward his conclusions to the Government.
"(3) We have come across cases in which publications have been advertised to such persons and in such a way as to endeavour to sell them or attract the public on the basis of their emphasis or alleged emphasis on sex, horror or violence.
"If a publication—for instance, a medical book—is displayed in a shop window open at a page of illustrations this would probably be an offence against the present law even though the book may itself be unobjectionable. There is however, another type of case which would not be caught by the law as it stands, but which we think equally deserves to be prohibited. An example of what we have in mind is an advertisement which is put out by a mail-order firm and is obviously designed to 'sell the book on its sex.' This open appeal to salacious instincts is most objectionable and we can see no justification for allowing it. Whether or not the publication itself is indecent, we think the type of advertisement we refer to should be prohibited by law.