A Minneapolis library board is getting ready to reverse a controversial position on Internet porn... and an Arkansas man is charged with running a child porn website... It's up and down but never out with the Web Roundup...
MINNEAPOLIS - The Minneapolis Public Library Board is preparing to reverse its controversial Internet access policy, with a crackdown on Net porn surfing on its computers. The board's general committee brought out a draft on Web use policy May 10 enforcing strict time limits, requiring identification from patrons when signing to use computers, and outlining "unacceptable use." This would reverse its explicit, open policy on Net access which some said let users access porn - a policy which prompted a complaint from seven librarians that the Net porn meant "a hostile and offensive workplace." The vote is expected next week.
JACKSONVILLE, Ark. - A local man is charged with running a website featuring child porn. William Donohue Fritch ran a Net ad claiming 100 percent "pre-teen girls sex pics," according to a federal indictment charging him with 33 counts. The ad is said to have called for "ages 10-15 including movies and stories." Net surfers interested in child porn were sent to his website by way of an Internet Relay Chat room allowing users to talk in real time and send and receive digitally-stored images. He faces one count of advertising child porn (15-30 years in prison, $250,000 fine), thirty counts of distributing child porn (5-30 years in prison per count, $250,000 fine), and one count of possession of child porn (2-10 years in prison and/or the fine). The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette said the charges cover November 1999-March 2000.
--- Compiled By Humphrey Pennyworth
