A series of children’s books have been pulled from school library shelves after a web address printed in the back was found to link to explicit content.<\/p>\n
The Spy Dog, Spy Pups and Spy Cat books by Derby author Andrew Cope are aimed at children of primary school age.<\/p>\n
Until recently a URL inside the books directed keen readers to a companion website featuring bonus content but the address has since been taken over by a third-party which has posted inappropriate material.<\/p>\n
Publisher Puffin said it was taking the matter extremely seriously and was working to get the website removed.<\/p>\n
The books feature cute animals using gadgets to solve crimes, catch robbers and undertake daredevil missions.<\/p>\n
However, the explicit content found via the link has prompted a number of schools to contact parents to make them aware of the issue, as well as removing books from library shelves.<\/p>\n
One email seen by the BBC included a graphic showing which books were affected and advised parents to “remove them immediately”.<\/p>\n
It added any books owned by the school should be returned so staff can dispose of them.<\/p>\n
In a joint statement, Andrew Cope and Puffin Books, said: “In some editions of the Spy Dog, Spy Cat and Spy Pups series there is a reference to the author, Andrew Cope’s, former website for the series which was owned and managed by him.<\/p>\n
“We understand an unconnected third party has very recently taken control of the domain name and is using it to display a different website with inappropriate adult content. <\/p>\n
“This website is not associated with Puffin or Andrew Cope. We are asking people not to visit the website and ensure that children do not visit it either.<\/p>\n
“We are taking this extremely seriously and are acting on this issue as a matter of urgency through the appropriate channels to get this website removed.<\/p>\n
“This is an in-depth and complex legal process and will take time.<\/p>\n
“In addition, we have immediately paused on the sale and distribution of the books whilst we deal with this matter. <\/p>\n
“We are currently working with retail and education and library partners to remove the books from shelves for the time being. <\/p>\n
“We are asking anyone who has copies of these titles to temporarily remove these books from their shelves.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A series of children’s books have been pulled from school library shelves after a web address printed in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":198109,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[353,49,48,75],"class_list":["post-198108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-books","tag-books","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}