Library to filter online porn(MN)

pioneer press ^ | 3-17-06 | EMILY GURNON

[Rakkasan1]

it's hard out there for the horny homeless.

[mewzilla]

If the library accepts federal funds it has to do this, doesn't it?

[lovecraft]

Especially when you're diddling the Dewey Decimal system...

[misterrob]

When government pays it gets to censor, snoop and restrict. Private is better.

[Publius6961]

Every time I see a thread like this, I am reminded of the simple solution to this in any public library or other facility accessible to children.

The oft mentioned .xxx domain.
It is a sweeping and powerful weapon, and it would not affect any non-public computer or access point.

Require all porn sites to present anything they wanted... literally anything, but... if they violate the rule, they are blocked permanently by all ISPs.
If the ISPs whine it's too difficult, they get filtered out too.

Problem solved.

[Yo-Yo]

Libraries have copies of Playboy, Penthouse, etc. but they don't lend them out to minors. Libraries have never complained about this sort of censorship, but scream bloody murder over filtering out internet porn from our kids.

What is the problem with porn filtering computers used by children, and not filtering when used by an adult? Set aside one or two terminals within sight of the reference desk to monitor usage, and problem solved.

[Bluegrass Conservative]

Set aside one or two terminals within sight of the reference desk to monitor usage, and problem solved.

That makes perfect sense. But, I'm not so sure it would apply well in rural areas. My public library only has two computers that the public is allowed to use.

[Yo-Yo]

Ah, well in that case it would be very easy to ask the librarian to turn off the filtering software for a particular user, then have them turn it back on when the patron is finished.

I was thinking of large libraries where there are 20 terminals and it would be impossible to keep running around turning filtering on and off on each machine.

I understand that most porn filter software blocks valuable medical information about breast cancer, uterine cancer, etc, so it needs to be disabled for certain people, but that is no excuse to reject filtering software outright.

[squarebarb]

The truth is that Internet porn in libraries draw really frightening and dirty people to the libraries. I have seen some terrible scenes in the San Antonio public library. When I asked a librarian, 'How can you let this go on when there are little kids around?' She said 'Free speech. We can't do anything about it.' Sinister-looking homeless guys fixed to the terminal bringingup image after image of hard-corn porn and kids in sight of it.

When this was revealed in the local paper suddenly they decided it wasn't free speech after all and blocked it.

[jaydubya2]

I heard patrons were double clicking their mouse :>0

[little jeremiah]

Moral Absolutes if you want it!

[Drew68]

The oft mentioned .xxx domain.
It is a sweeping and powerful weapon,

Not really. Who will comply? The porn sites? Haha! Who will pay to enforce it? Thousands of new porn sites are constructed every week! ISPs could never keep up with the requirement to constantly block every new site that pops up. It would require armies of employees. They can't even keep child porn off the net. How on earth are they going to regulate the millions (yes, millions) of "legitimate" porn sites out there?

That being said, I'm sure someone will make a .xxx domain into law soon. And it will have *zero* effect on internet pornography except that some politician somewhere will be able to say he did something.

[Drew68]

I understand that most porn filter software blocks valuable medical information about breast cancer, uterine cancer, etc, so it needs to be disabled for certain people, but that is no excuse to reject filtering software outright.

Filtereing software is very restrictive. If you have ever tried to surf the internet that has been rendered "child-safe" you'd know. The computers at the Liberty Center on the navy base wear I work installed Net-Nanny and so many webpages were blocked that they wound up removing it. Now they just post signs saying if you are caught surfing porn, your CO will be notified. That seems to work a little better.

[Yo-Yo]

That is a reasonable policy at a Naval Base's Library, but not for a public library open to school children.

As I posted earlier, I understand that the software needs to be disabled for some very legitimate searches. I just don't see that as an excuse not to use it at all.

[Bluegrass Conservative]

The truth is that Internet porn in libraries draw really frightening and dirty people to the libraries.

It's not the porn that draws them . . . public libraries, by nature of being warm and free and have ways to kill time, do that on their own.

[Fury]

Good article.

I don't believe that any library has an obligation to provide unlimited Internet access, any more than they have an obligation to have subscriptions of magazines that depict hard core pornography (or request such magazines for a patron via Inter Library Loan).

I agree with one poster that filtering software can be overly restrictive. It can also get expensive to use in a commercial/educational setting.

So, what to do? I don't think there should be PC's that are obscured from view either. That can invite problems.

Ideas?

[squarebarb]

No. Once the San Antonio public library blocked porn sites, about 2/3 of those guys disappeared.

When you could get porn nine or ten guys would be lined up outside the library at 9 a.m. waiting for the doors to open. After they installed blocks they weren't there any more. Besides, San Antonio's problem isn't cold it's the heat.

The library limited people to 30 minutes at a time on the Internet, and I saw a guy striding up and down yelling at the librarian, "When is my turn? That guy's been on more than 30 minutes!' And then the minute he sat down at the terminal he started hitting buttons and bringing up porn expertly. A nine-yr. old little girl was runnning around the aisles near him.

[Rakkasan1]

it's only 18 million for that new porn surfing hangout for our 'urban camper' friends and "rehabbed" pedophiles.

[Galveston Grl]

This is our experience in our local library in Masshole ten years ago. My son and I were at the library and this pastier, sick looking thing of a man was at one of the adult computers. We had to walk behind him to get where we were going and I picked him out as a creep right away. My son was nine. As we walked behind him, he made a racket to get my son's attention. He moved his body from in front of his computer screen which had loaded up an image of two men going at it in a gay porn pose.

I told the librarian on duty they were at risk attracting the peep show crowd to their library because many times they were totally alone in the big building with the perverts. She got on her high horse and told me to get screwed - I was a Christian conservative "hater" to her. Then three years later that same librarian got raped and badly beaten at the library. After that there was a filter on porn in the library - to hell with "free speech."

The victim was the woman I had warned. And it could not have happened to a nicer brainless humanist. Still, we never have returned to the public library. It is off limits to my kids and I don't want to entice any porn perverts to fixate on me either. In a town hall meeting after the librarian's dear death experience, I gave a speech on defunding and closing the library because it was a risk to the community after years of serving as the gathering spot for perverts in the area. They were accustomed to using the bathrooms and untraveled, far flung corners of the library...

[plan2succeed.org]

Reversing a long-standing policy, the Ramsey County Library Board this week voted unanimously to install anti-porn software on its library computers.  ....

Current policy prohibits the library's computer users from accessing pornography....  But some people break the rules.  Librarians ... report that patrons do frequent pornographic Web sites, sometimes printing the images.  Staff are then put in the uncomfortable position of confronting the users.

'One of our key concerns as a library board was to not inflict our staff with having to find these images on computers and to be subjected to unwanted information,' said board president David Norrgard.

Three years ago, a dozen librarians from the Minneapolis Public Library filed suit in federal court alleging that they were subject to a hostile work environment from patrons surfing online sex-related sites, printing out material and even masturbating in the library.  The library paid the plaintiffs $435,000 to settle the case and has since installed filters on its computers.

Another motivation for the change in Ramsey County is the potential effect on children.  'The whole goal of the library is to be a community gathering place, and we don't want to have any patron feel like it's not an environment they would want to bring their family to,' [library director Susan] Nemitz said.  ....

The board's decision was also influenced by improvement in the filtering software, making it far superior to what was around in the past, Nemitz said.  Earlier software sometimes filtered out material that was appropriate, such as information on breast cancer.  ....

The cost for the filtering software is about $12,000 for three years, plus $4,000 for a server, Nemitz said."  [P2S:  Finally!  the secret of opening the eyes of the public is to hit' em in the pocketbook!  The library director here is about to come under the thumb of the ALA for 1) admitting publicly that filters work--even allowing for breast cancer research, 2) implying that libraries should be family friendly, 3) arguing that CIPA money should not be turned down, and 4) admitting that filtering costs are not great.  Someone please ask for a resolution commending her for being one of the few librarians nationwide exposing the ALA's misinformation; the ALA should not be the entity controlling local libraries.  We wonder if she is aware that she has strayed from the ALA propaganda.  Well, all's well that ends well.  BRAVO!  And notice the article admits people break the policy rules, exactly as we have been showing in article after article, proving again the ALA policies are useless.  AND LOOK AT THAT UNANIMOUS VOTE BY THE LIBRARY BOARD TO INSTALL FILTERS!  WHAT AN INSPIRATION!!!!]

Source: http://www.LibraryPorn.org/examples.html

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