A major London museum is facing a fierce backlash from parents after stocking its children's reading room with books containing graphic illustrations of naked adults and explicit definitions of adult sexual concepts.
Graphic Content Sparks Parental Fury
The controversy centres on the Young V&A in Bethnal Green, East London, part of the world-renowned Victoria and Albert Museum group. Visitors discovered a picture book titled It Isn't Rude To Be Nude prominently displayed at the front of a reading area used by young children. The book's opening pages feature a drawing of a naked man sprawled across them, with subsequent pages showing illustrations of nude adults and genitalia. One caption reads 'willies aren't silly', accompanied by drawings of penises. The cover is emblazoned with the label 'contains nakedness – and that's OK!'.
One parent, speaking on Saturday, expressed shock and concern: 'Kids should not tolerate grown men in the nude around them. I was shocked to see it on display at a museum aimed at young kids.' They argued the book implied to children that 'having nude strangers around you is acceptable', contradicting fundamental safeguarding principles.
A Wider Collection of Controversial Material
The nudity-themed book was not an isolated case. Parents reported having to 'dodge' what they described as 'pornographic' books to prevent their toddlers from seeing them. Another claimed the museum's selection 'amounted to psychological warfare' on children.
The reading room, which also houses classic children's titles like The Gruffalo and Peter Pan, included other contentious works. A graphic novel, Rainbow Revolutionaries: 50 LGBTQ+ People Who Made History, presents contested transgender theories as fact to a young audience. Its glossary explains terms like 'gender affirmation surgery' and defines 'polyamorous' as 'when someone openly has multiple partners at the same time' and 'asexual' as 'not having any or having very low desire for sex'.
Kate Barker, CEO of the LGB Alliance charity, condemned the display: 'This is grooming in plain sight: an egregious safeguarding failure and the latest example of organisations using the rainbow flag to cloak the sexualisation of children.'
Political Figures and Museum Respond
The museum group is chaired by Sir Keir Starmer's chief economic adviser, Minouche Shafik, and run by former Labour MP Sir Tristram Hunt, who was put forward for a knighthood by Sir Keir this month. Shadow equalities secretary Claire Coutinho criticised the situation: 'It is madness that the children's section of the V&A bans children from wearing costumes but allows them to read about what it means to be "polyamorous" or "pansexual". Cartoons of naked adults saying it "isn't rude to be nude" are an obvious safeguarding risk.'
In response, a V&A spokesman stated: 'The reading room at Young V&A is a free drop-in space for families to enjoy spending time reading together. All the books available have been reviewed by our staff to ensure they are age appropriate and grown-ups can choose which books they read with their children.' The museum maintains that all books in the children's area are 'age appropriate'.
The row highlights a deepening cultural divide over what material is suitable for young children in public institutions, placing the prestigious museum at the heart of a heated debate on childhood, safeguarding, and age-appropriate content.
