(The following was written by Stand intern Emily Moorman)
Since the dawn of television, parents have urged their children to spend less time watching “junk” on TV and more time reading an enriching book. In fact, the late Don Wildmon’s fight against the smut on television is what birthed American Family Association. And it was in the early years of the ministry that Wildmon fought hard against the onslaught of pornography. Now, over 40 years later, AFA continues its founder’s battle against the culture’s normalization of sexual perversion, which only intensifies as technology advances.
For example, AFA wants to bring to light the dangers of an online trend called BookTok. Because of BookTok, some young people are now being encouraged to read books containing content that could be more harmful than the trash on TV.
What is BookTok?
BookTok is short for “Book TikTok.” It was birthed when books and book lovers collided with TikTok, the popular but controversial social media app known for its ties to Communist countries, stealing its users’ information, and promoting leftist ideologies to its users. BookTok is an online “community of readers and authors [who are] passionate about literature and books,” according to social media marketing tool Social Pilot. “The readers [also known as content creators] on BookTok recommend, review, and discuss books by making engaging videos about them.”
Some readers even dress up like a book’s character to show their passion for the book, which is typically from one of the following genres: romance, young adult fantasy, or young adult fiction.
Social Pilot further explained, “BookTok gained popularity when a large number of readers started sharing their book reviews and recommendations, and a huge number of TikTok users [mostly women and teens] could relate to their recommendations and literary viewpoints. To date, BookTok has garnered more than 112 billion views on TikTok. … Today, BookTok has a significant influence on the book trends that are followed.”
Not all it's cracked up to be
While BookTok is an innocent concept, a disturbing reality is lurking behind the crafted front. It appears to be harmless and even beneficial for TikTok users until the recommended books are actually cracked open and read.
The books that become popular on BookTok are almost exclusively romance novels that more closely resemble pornographic literature than innocent love stories. These books target young women and contain intimate details of romantic scenes, some including explicit and graphic explanations of sexual intercourse. On BookTok, such books are frequently praised for being “spicy” and containing “smut.” In fact, entire accounts on TikTok are devoted to promoting spicy books, and the creators of these accounts will purposely seek out books in this category to suggest to their followers.
Pornography in diguise
While some content creators make it clear that they are promoting adult content, others are not so forthcoming about their book recommendations. It is very common for a creator to recommend a book by only summarizing the plot, stating how good it was, and giving it five out of five stars, without mentioning its overtly sexual content or its LGBTQ storyline.
Even the colorful covers of the books are deceiving, depicting cartoon characters and innocent titles. Pornographic books are no longer given a seductive title or provocative image and placed in the back of the bookstore. Instead, they now depict whimsical cover art, are given catchy titles that appeal to young people, and are then placed on the front tables in major chain bookstores. There have been numerous incidents of young women unintentionally exposing their minds and hearts to evil because they read a book that was recommended on BookTok.
While books may have been a preferable alternative to television years ago, BookTok has unfortunately ruined this for many young book lovers striving to guard their hearts and minds from sexual immorality.
