Members of the San Jose City Council yesterday voted 7-3 against having Internet filters placed in public libraries.

A year and a half of debate over filtering pornography out of San Jose public library computers came to a head late Tuesday when the City Council rejected spending money on the technology.

After a lively debate that lasted hours, the council voted 7-3 to approve a proposal by the vice mayor and two councilmen that would remind computer users of existing policies to be courteous to others. Mayor Chuck Reed and council members Pete Constant, who led the push for the filters, and Pierluigi Oliverio were opposed, favoring filters in children’s areas
—MercuryNews.com

It really is too bad that city library systems don’t communicate better, because if they did, the members of the Sane Jose City Council would have had this headline bouncing around in their heads as they cast their final votes: Man arrested for allegedly viewing child porn at Olympia library.

Library staff called Olympia police after a librarian walked by Liston and saw a depiction of what appeared to be child pornography on the computer Liston was using.

“When law enforcement arrived and approached the defendant he started closing tabs,” court papers state. “The officer stopped the defendant. When the officer was reviewing the screen tabs that were open, he noticed several sites that depicted minor children in various sexual acts with adults.”
—TheOlympian.com

The fact that there are any public places, especially libraries, that offer unfiltered internet access to anyone who walks in seems a bit crazy, especially when there are affordable options for non-profits like libraries, schools, and churches. Librarians can not be expected to personally police every single Internet user in a library, and frankly, expecting everyone to adhere to the rules and be courteous to other users simply isn’t realistic. If someone is into child pornography, or is comfortable looking at explicit material in a public library, chances are that they aren’t even swayed by federal law, much less library rules for Internet use.

Tell us what you think: Should public places like libraries be able to offer unfiltered Internet access to the general public?

Author’s Note: Since I posted this yesterday, a man in Covington, Louisiana, was arrested on child pornography charges. The main raised suspicion of himself by frequenting pornographic web site in a library, and staring at children.
Police Find Child Porn On Library Patron

Filed under: Internet Safety News