According to Republican presidential contender John McCain, if a public library or school offers unlimited Internet access to children, it shouldn't be allowed to drink at the federal trough. And he said it at the public library he recently blasted for letting adults view Internet porn unfettered in an area where children might be able to see it.
McCain had first attacked the Greenville Public Library last month when he discovered its computers were used by a group of adults which included a convicted sex offender and that they were surfing Net porn at will while children were present.
"That this scourge can exist in this beautiful, religiously grounded, family-friendly town points out the enormity of the crisis," he said at the library Friday. "If you walk into any library and ask for a Hustler magazine the library will tell you it's not available because it's inappropriate. Yet a child can log on to the library computer and surf the Web for some of the most degrading and shocking pornography available."
McCain implies public libraries had all but a duty to use Web filtering software aimed at limiting access to porn - even though many such software often trap non-porn or other non-offensive sites and block them from access, such sites as newspapers and other mainstream news and entertainment media.
"When a mother or father drops their child off at the library they are entrusting the welfare of their child with the librarian," he said.
McCain was accompanied by two South Carolina Republican Congressmen, Lindsey Graham and Mark Sanford, as well as several state legislators.
