Solano County supervisors will ponder more formalized library Internet filtering this month, following residential complaints at recent meetings. Until now, libraries in the county have been allowed to set and enforce their own filtering policies.
The issue arose for county supervisors again at the same time a Florida man was arrested for downloading child pornography at a Sarasota public library.
The supervisors are said to be considering ideas like separating computer stations into children’s and adults’ areas with the children’s areas filtered by requirement and adults allowed to surf as they please. Filtering at any level could be bypassed upon user request for pursuits like research.
Since 1996, Solano County libraries have been able to revoke computer privileges if patrons use the Internet to see “extremes of sex or violence,” but otherwise libraries have no automatic filtering in place to block adult entertainment and other “seedy” sites, the Daily Republic reported this week.
“It's a classic example of clashing human rights: Personal privacy versus freedom of information,” read the report. “Neither can exist in totality without infringing on the other, county officials say.”
One of those is Supervisor Mike Reagan. "Government computers were not intended to surf for porn," he said at a recent supervisors’ meeting. "As I understand it, the First Amendment gives people the right to say what they want, but I'm not sure government should enable all of those voices to be heard."
The voices the supervisors are listening to, however, are those of county parents who spoke up during recent meetings asking the board to impose Internet access limits at the county’s seven libraries. "My sense is that there is a need for change," Supervisor Duane Kromm told those who attended the recent meeting. "But I'm not in favor of some draconian limit on what people can access on the Internet."
One supervisor seemed to be hunting for a middle ground. "There's got to be a way to allow full access on computers when someone requests it,” said Supervisor Barbara Kondylis, “but at the same time protect children from exposure to things like pornography.”
Another supervisor, John Vasquez, also seemed undecided as of this week. "There are a number of questions that need to be asked," he said. "I've gotten calls on both sides of this."
The county’s library director, Ann Cousineau, told the Daily Republic that only a small percentage of library Internet users visit “inappropriate” websites, and that even library staffers who roam the facilities routinely can’t always control what their patrons view online. "It depends on how busy it is. If we get too busy, then we might not catch it,” Cousineau told the paper. “It's up to parents to make sure children don't log on to sites they consider obscene.”
Various policing policies
California counties are generally mixed in terms of library Internet filtering. Yolo County doesn’t require filtering although Alameda and Contra Costa Counties do. Sacramento County filters children Net stations, but not those of adults.
In so-called “Porn Valley” in southern California, where most of libraries are administered by the Los Angeles Public Library, LAPL representatives were unavailable for comment before this story went to press. But library policies for patron Internet use include losing computer access if a user removes privacy screens, saves files onto hard drives, plugs his or her own devices into USB ports (“due to network security issues,” shuts off a computer, “engage[s] in harassing or defamatory activity online,” or uses a terminal for “illegal activity.”
“The use of library terminals for the transmission, dissemination and/or duplication of information is regulated by state and federal laws,” the LAPL policy states. “All library users must comply with these laws. Library policy forbids the access of illegal material on its terminals. As with other library materials, supervision of a child's use of the Internet is the responsibility of a parent or legal guardian. The library has created home pages for children (Kids' Path) and young adults (Teen'Scape) that provide information and links to other websites designed for children and young adults.”
More zero-tolerance library porn bans?
In addition to local parents’ complaints, cases like that of Brad Mitchell in Florida could help Solano supervisors make up their minds. Mitchell was arrested this week for downloading numerous child porn images at the Selby Library in downtown Sarasota. A security officer told reporters Mitchell used a library computer to download and print the images. He’s been charged with multiple counts of felony sex performance by a child.
So could cases like that from Phoenix, Arizona, last August, when a convicted child molester was arrested for downloading child porn from a Phoenix Public Library computer, prompting the city council to impose a porn ban on all city libraries a month later.
And, in Philadelphia early last year, a man who followed an 8-year-old girl into the ladies room at a branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia turned out to have been banned from the library’s central location previously for surfing porn on library computers.
