It's considered a rather conservative place, but this western Michigan community's voters have just rejected a measure to force the public library to install Internet filters on its computers to stop younger viewers from seeing porn.
Almost undetected amid the hoopla around the Republican Presidential primary, Holland voters rejected the proposal by 753 votes, according to unofficial returns. Holland may have been the first locality to put filtering on the ballot, at a time when Net access at public libraries is debated nationwide.
Shannon Garrett, who runs Families For Internet Access, a local group against the measure, tells the Associated Press the free speech implications brought out "a number of voters". Opponents think filters aimed at blocking porn, hate, or violence Web sites don't work properly and too often block out "legitimate" Web sites.
Some opponents also accused outsiders, the American Family Association explicitly, of using the Holland measure as a launch to promote a national agenda, the AP says. But LoriJo Schepers of Holland Area Citizens Voting YES! to Protect Our Children, told the AP on election night the loss wouldn't stop the group from fighting to get filters into library and other public computers.
Holland library spokesman Gary Pullano tells the AP it wasn't clear what might have happened had the measure passed, though the library board suggested it would sooner close than install the filters.
``I think human supervision is the answer,'' Republican voter Char Laman, who brought her 11/2-year-old grandson to the polls with her, tells the AP. ``We're at the library all the time and there's never been a problem.''
But another voter, Elaine Cioffi, demurred, telling the AP, "I just think that children really don't know what's for their own good. It may not be a really big problem at the library right now or in the future, but why take a chance?''
