I suspect a lot of people are rather comforted by the fact that it was pornographies that were removed at first. Now the waterline has moved up to horror games[1]. Mouthwashing(2024) is a horror adventure game available on all 3 major game consoles as well as Steam, and now it's hidden on itch.io. Think about that.
The current discussion included games like Detroit: Become Human, which AFAICT does not include the kind of content being objected to here[^1].
[^1]: I think there is a sexual assault scene against a robot — but the game isn't glorifying SA; if anything, exactly the opposite, since the entire point of the story is focused on questions of sentience and moral grey to outright morally horrendous areas around the rights of robots who are gaining sentience but exist in a society that does not see them as beings deserving of rights, but rather as objects, and the conflict/problems that creates.
To classify it as "rape content" or "porn" would require stripping it of literary & artistic value. Which seems to be the endgame of most of these book-burning groups.
Always has been. Julie of the Wolves is a Newbery winner and the sexual assault in the first quarter of the book is central to the entire story. The Giver is another, and deals with euthanasia and infanticide (literally 'abortion after birth'). Number the Stars, again a Newbery winner, dealing with escaping genocide. The Slave Dancer - guess that topic? Summer of the Swans, with a mentally disabled sibling? Shiloh - animal abuse. Maniac Magee - racism.
And they've always been being banned for these things. And these are just from the <100 Newbery winners.
Let's be real. They're probably fine with Maniac Magee not being banned.
Thats the only book I've read out of the ones that you shared. Interestingly, that was the book my 3rd grade teacher decided to read aloud during storytime. When I read it again as a teenager I was questioning the choice, but even at age 8 I thought it was well-written.
Unfortunately, many people will support a law provided that the first order consequences align with them ideologically - irrespective of the potential PRECEDENT aforementioned law results in.
Porn wasn't the first by a long shot. It was just the first that people felt comfortable speaking up against. Up to that point everyone seemed mighty fine that these companies rule the world
1: https://itch.io/search?type=games&q=mouthwashing&classificat...
2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mouthwashing_(video_game)