Sounds familiar...

I came across a news story this morning that's all too familiar. It reminded me a lot about my own experiences at CPL back in 2008 and ruffled my feathers enough to get me to draft a post about it. This story was about a ten year old girl who was exposed to hardcore pornography in her public library during a Sunday mid-afternoon outing with her mother and sister. Read the news story linked above for the deets. But the mother was with her daughters - they were both being properly supervised.

Kudos to the mother for reacting in a very logical and appropriate, even sensible manner. The daughter was very upset by the experience. I'm upset too - and here's why:

1. The mother noticed what was going on and tried to address it by asking the librarians about it (she was given the classic "that's their right to view that material" garbage line)
   
2. The mother even asked the male patron (notice I chose to not use the term "gentleman" here) to view that elsewhere. And his reply was that he needed "30 more seconds". {ewwww... shudder}
3. After her daughter had been exposed and started crying, the mother responsibly email the library administration to alert them to the situation. And she states excellent supporting points.
   

   "At a minimum, there should be warning signs posted, stating that some screens may contain adult content. ... I had no idea my girls could be exposed to such images at our local library,"

Protecting prurient materials is not a constitutional right, regardless of the garbage we're being told. If you have any questions about that, check out the actual Constitution and Free Speech Amendment people are quoting without actually reading (obscene speech is not protected. prurient material is considered obscene). And most tax payers would shudder to think they're helping fund library porn. Particularly when children can be - and very much are - being exposed to hardcore pornography - and it's damaging effects.

More on Freedom of Speech
The First Amendment
More on the First Amendment
Read more!

Washington - Way to be!

Here's a news article that I LOVED reading! Washington (the state, not the capital) just made the news regarding this library porn issue on seattlepi.com.

Apparently, the ACLU had sued against filtering porn in the library (big surprise, right?) and the State Supreme Court ruled in favor of filters, stating "Public libraries in Washington can filter Internet content to block things like pornography..."

What a lovely victory! Here's a snippet from the article regarding their decision, "A public library has traditionally and historically enjoyed broad discretion to select materials to add to its collection of printed materials for its patrons' use. We conclude that the same discretion must be afforded a public library to choose what materials from millions of Internet sites it will add to its collection and make available to its patrons," the opinion said. "A public library has never been required to include all constitutionally protected speech in its collection and has traditionally had the authority, for example, to legitimately decline to include adult-oriented material such as pornography in its collection. This same discretion continues to exist with respect to Internet materials."

Click here for the complete article.

Unfortunately, even if the Illinois Supreme Court had a similar decision, it's unlikely the Chicago Public Library Commissioner (Mary Dempsey) and Board of Directors would use it to protect those in our public libraries that don't want to see second-hand porn. Based on her interview with WGN back in 2008, Dempsey thinks she "has no ability to control it." Tsk, tsk.
Read more!

The Libary Porn Issue Across the US...

Here are just some links to news stories regarding this issue in the USA:

http://www.argus-press.com/articles/2009/10/08/news/news1.txt

Reminding us - it really IS about protecting our kids:
http://www.connectmidmichigan.com/news/story.aspx?id=353426

Also, I found this site: http://www.columbian.com/article/20091010/OPINION01/710109998/-1/OPINION
It's a political website for the school board in Vancouver, WA. I found it encouraging that someone's stand on the library porn issue was directly tied to votes. Here's the quote:

Margaret Tweet, Camas: The record of Mayor Pollard and others running for Vancouver City Council on hardcore library porn is atrocious. Since 1997, I witnessed and also read public records of minors accessing hardcore pornography at FVRL library computers. Furthermore, reports of adults' access to hardcore material also negatively affected library visitors young and old.

The mayor and certain candidates could have helped solve the problem. Instead, the mayor lambasted citizens at city meetings, the library board delayed, and the problem festered until 2006.

Councilor Jeanne Stewart defended decent libraries and deserves re-election. Tim Leavitt, Bill Turlay, and Anne McEnerny-Ogle would better serve Vancouver. (info: www.lifepac.org)

And the title of this one made me laugh out loud: "But Where Will Homeless Philadelphia Men Browse Internet Porn Now?"
http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/dailyrft/2009/09/but_where_will_homeless_philad.php
Although the title is funny, the actual article itself is kind of sad - it talks about library services being cut back and canceled because of funding. And that is truly a bummer, even if this article has a snarky, sarcastic twist about it.
Read more!

International Example of the Libary Porn Issue

Canada... London... Australia...

Examples of pornography use in public libraries are popping up all over the world, not just in the United States. Of course, the American Library Association (ALA) has directed American libraries to offer completely unfettered access to the internet, with the only exception being child pornography.

It's important to note that although the ALA directs American libraries regarding this issue, each city has their own independent governing bodies (ex, CPL has the library board) and are allowed to make choices for those libraries accordingly.

Anyway - I've already covered some news stories about this issue in Australia, here's a link to another recent news story that's more international in nature. It's interesting to note that there are other countries dealing with a very similar issue.
http://www2.macleans.ca/2009/09/13/library-porn-incident-sparks-outcry/
Read more!

Filters Aren't Required to Keep Porn Out

The title of this news article can be a bit misleading - but it gets the point across. Greensboro Central Library in fact does NOT filter out internet pornography. However, it DOES have policies against using internet pornography. Here's the deal, taken from the article:

Instead, anyone caught looking at porn are asked to leave by security guards. Repeat offenders can be banned for a day, week, month or even a year at a time.

Porn surfing is not a criminal offense, but repeat offenders can and have been charged with trespassing. (Copyright © 2009, WGHP-TV)

Here's the complete article: Greensboro Central Library Doesn't Filter Out Pornography

I think it's important to note that filtering wasn't used, but having a policy in place to prevent this kind of thing is very much in use. This is something that the CPL could very easily incorporate into our public libraries. We already have security guards patrolling around on the 3rd floor, allegedly in an attempt to help enforce laws against child pornography. Why not ask them to enforce a policy against all sexually explicit materials?
Read more!

How to Get Porn out of Public Libraries...

One of the first sites that I found while researching this issue of open pornography use in the CPL was Plan2Succeed.org. This site has a lot of great links - but it was easy for me to get lost on the site. Anyway - I remember finding this page a long time ago and thinking how awesome it was to have so many great ideas in one place. I recently stumbled on this page again and thought it would be great to share it from my blog with anyone who might be interested.

Here's a link to the site: http://www.plan2succeed.org/librarypornremoval.html
Read more!

Governmend Funded Outlets to Porn

The author of this article, Rhonda Callow, lays out the arguments FOR anti-porn filters in schools and libraries. And as she says so eloquently, "...there must be some benefits to having pornography filters on the computers of our schools and libraries, otherwise, aren’t these just government funded outlets to porn?"

I'll break down her most beautiful arguments here:

1. It protects our children from (intentionally or unintentionally) seeing inappropriate content.
2. No matter how much of a parenting super power you might be, "If people are permitted to openly view pornography in our libraries, we might as well send our kids to the local brothel to do their homework and research projects".
3. "If we permit people to download and watch pornography from public libraries, how long until the inappropriate label is stripped away and “sick” becomes “standard”?
4. "Sure, you could move the library computers so that only the computer user can see the screen, but do you really want some man (or woman) looking at porn while your child is but ten feet away studying for his next history exam?"
5. As the counterargument with forcing the cost of filters on libraries and schools, "I’m somewhat concerned with the costs associated with having technicians come in to do regular clean-ups and maintenance on the computers which have been infected with malicious programs, such as spyware and viruses; something most of us know is a likely probability when porn sites are visited and the content downloaded. Avoiding the initial costs of installing these filters could possibly be considered a “budget band-aid” and not a practical, cost-effective long-term solution."
6. "Internet filters are advanced enough now that even if they do block a breast cancer website, in all likelihood, the person doing the search will be able to access various other websites on the topic just fine."

For the complete article, follow this link: http://www.sync-blog.com/sync/2009/09/pornography-in-our-schools-and-libraries.html
Read more!