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'Adult' Books Create Controversy For Mall Clothing Store

Posted: 4:40 pm EDT July 5, 2006Updated: 5:50 pm EDT July 5, 2006

Books, with titles too shocking to print, have been put within arms reach of children at an upscale local mall. The store said customers like the books, but Eyewitness News learned that's not always the case.

The books are being sold at a popular clothing store. The books Eyewitness News found at Urban Outfitters even have some of their titles and images covered up on the Internet, but in the store they're in plain sight.

Many of the books were on a short table for all to see. A store with plenty of kids and parents inside is selling books that include a picture book that invites readers to use part of the male anatomy to complete the picture and another book that helps the reader turn the title of any movie into a porn movie title.

"There is no restraint. It's right there at a low table level, a low table level, just like candy at a grocery check out," said parent Shannon DuPont.

DuPont couldn't believe what her 12-year-old daughter found inside Urban Outfitters in the Mall at Millenia.

"I thought someone had left the book in the store and I was on my way to return it to the front and found a whole stack of them for sale," DuPont said.

The book Pornification even shows how children's movies can be all about sex. A book of mixed drinks has as many completely naked women it as an issue of Playboy. A children's-style book has a hole for the male anatomy and there's a "Grow Up To Be Gay" magnet set for little boys.

Other books have the 'F' word on the cover and every page. There's also a marijuana cookbook and a sex position of the day calendar.

"When I come to the mall, when I walk into the store, I would like to have piece of mind to know that I'm not going to have my child assaulted with sexuality, narcotics," DuPont said.

No one from the Philadelphia-based clothing store called Eyewitness News back for comment, but an email apology to DuPont's complaint admits it might be distasteful, but claims their target audience is 18-24. Still, Eyewitness News found plenty of kids inside with no warning sign on the door.

Officials at the Mall at Millenia were checking documentation to see if there were any steps they could take to have the products removed from the store.

Urban Outfitters has stores nationwide, including six stores in Florida, and this is not the first time the store's products have caused controversy. In 2003, the NAACP opposed a game called Ghetto-poly and several racially charged t-shirts, items the company no longer sells.

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