SJ Longthorne

It can make moral, ethical, and philosophical conundrums both accessible and attractive while also providing positive role models and exposing young people to things they might have little experience of, like mental health and LGBT+ issues.

I read once that children who read Harry Potter indicated higher levels of empathy. Is YA fiction a way by which we can mould the next generation to be more open-minded, kind, and inquisitive?

I know you don't mean it that way, but can't help thinking of some people using YA fiction to purposefully manipulate their audience, and how poorly equipped that audience is to fight it. And that concept scares the hell out of me.

That's a very good point. That's where I think the publishers themselves come in; I'm unsure where publishing legislation currently stands, but the right laws could definitely help safeguard against the majority of threats.

I doubt most publishers would accept that kind of shady material anyway. The above would push those authors to self-publish, which puts the odds massively against the author, making it unlikely it will reach its audience in the first place.

But it's not really a new notion anyway. Whether intentionally or not, YA already does the job of which I'm speaking. And so far, I can't recall having seen anything malicious come to light -- at least in the public eye.

And on the off-chance that stuff IS making it through, we should have good stuff there to counter it.

Fiction by its nature teaches us about our world and helps shape our views. YA fiction would be doing the same for more malleable minds regardless of our intentions simply by existing.