Why Aren't There Rating Systems for YA Novels?

After reading so many YA novels this semester, I spent a lot of time thinking of the different plots and themes that I encountered during my reading journey.  I made a point to try and find books that showed empowered teens and how they overcame the hardships and difficult events in their lives.  Book after book, I read, and found myself gasping at the crude content and language.  I kept saying to myself, “I could never put this in my classroom or recommend these to my students for reading!” 

So many books, that I thought would show the strength and character that I wanted my students to read about, were filled with violence, obscenities, and sex!  I do not know why this bothered me so much, as I was reading novels filled with the same things when I was in middle school.  However, the difference between then and now is that I was reading adult-age novels and my students are reading YA novels.  I think that my point is that what was once considered too taboo for young eyes, has now become commonplace in YA reading!  I have never been one for censorship, and in fact I feel that we all have freedom of speech, but there is something to be said by making readers aware of the content of a book before you read it. 

When buying these books, I was under the misconception that when you bought a YA novel, it was the PG-13 version of an adult-age book.  I WAS WRONG!  When I read The D.U.F.F., I was completely enthralled as an adult, but completely disgusted as a teacher of 8^th graders.  I was hoping for a young girl that found herself in a love/hate relationship with a boy that she ended up having in more in common with than she originally thought, while also discovering her own personal strength.  What I got, was a young girl that locked in her emotions by having an inappropriately sexual relationship with the school player.  As I have said before, I look at these books with different eyes.  From the eyes of a student, I see something intriguing and risqué, as an adult I find it an easy read that is basically like an R-rated movie, but as a teacher, I see it as a book that teaches my teenage students that it is better to suppress your emotions and practically prostitute yourself in order to fit-in with the rest of the world. 

I believe that there should be something, like a TV/Movie rating system, that is used for YA novels.  Too many parents pick up books for their kids that they think looks great because of a pretty cover, yet it ends up having content that hurts their self-esteem or their perception of life.  Yes, this may seem over-the-top, but we live in a world where kids are growing up so much faster than they should be at this age.  It may be hard to get them to read, but there should be some subjects that are left for the adult-age sections.  When I was in 6^th grade, I started reading adult-age books because I found YA novels to be too dull for me.  Now, if I compare YA novels from my past to the ones today…I would consider these new books to be adult!  Maybe I am over-reacting, but I think that there should be a level of maturity, intelligence, and understanding needed before reading content that is intended for older eyes.