personally I have read Perks of Being a Wallflower and am in high school, this book isn't bad. If anything it would be good for their son to read so that they can talk about it as a family after instead of him experiencing it on his own. Sheltering your son from books is taking it way to far. He won't know anything when he gets out in the real world and there is always the possibility that he already has encountered this stuff on his own with his friends anyway. so i really dont see the point in getting so worked up about it.