EDMONTON, Alberta (LifeSiteNews) — Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is standing firm on her government’s upcoming ban on books with sexually explicit as well as pornographic material from all school libraries, saying “pornography is a problem for young adults.”

“If I am not permitted to describe to you the kind of images that seven-year-olds are seeing because it would offend your audience, then we shouldn’t be showing them to seven-year-olds,” Smith told reporters late last week.

Smith added that her and her government’s view is that “pornography is a problem for young adults,” adding she thinks it’s important to make sure “young children are exposed to age-appropriate material only and that they’re not exposed to pornographic images early.”

As reported by LifeSiteNews in May, Smith’s United Conservative Party (UCP) government is going ahead with plans to ban books with sexually explicit as well as pornographic material, many of which contain LGBT and even pedophilic content, from all school libraries.

Last week, the province’s Minister of Education, Demetrios Nicolaides, who has been in talks with school boards, said the ban will take effect on October 1, 2025. All sexually explicit materials must be removed from school libraries by this date.

Some in the legacy media, as well as some activists from the Alberta Teachers’ Association, have spread unsubstantiated rumors that the book ban would extend to banning books on puberty; however, these were proven false.

The UCP’s crackdown on sexual content in school libraries comes after several severely sexually explicit graphic novels were found in school libraries in Calgary and Edmonton. The UCP shared a list of the books, unfiltered, some of which can be found in libraries that kindergarten students can access.

As reported by LifeSiteNews, government polling of parents has revealed that there is strong opposition to people’s children viewing pornography in school libraries.

The pro-LGBT books in question, found at multiple school locations, are Gender Queer, a graphic novel by Maia Kobabe; Flamer, a graphic novel by Mike Curato; Blankets, a graphic novel by Craig Thompson; and Fun Home, a graphic novel by Alison Bechdel.

Smith’s UCP government has, in recent months and years, been fighting back against extreme forms of gender ideology.

She was against forced COVID jabs, and her United Conservative government has in recent months banned men from competing in women’s sports and passed a bill banning so-called “top and bottom” surgeries for minors as well as other forms of transgender ideology.

While Smith has done well on some points, she has still been soft on social issues of importance to conservatives such as abortion, and has publicly expressed pro-LGBT views, telling Jordan Peterson last year that conservatives must embrace homosexual “couples” as “nuclear families.”