From their perspective, the Norton filters out too much so that people searching for legitimate information on any topic which involves using words like penis, vagina, breasts, etc. is filtered out. Imagine trying to get information about breast cancer. Too, I was told by the same group that people who are moderately computer literate (leaves me out) can get around the Norton and other filters to get to the porn.
The librarians at Minneapolis filed suit when both the library board and management ignored their pleas for a policy delineating how they should deal with internet porn at the central library.
Before the policy was written and instituted last winter, branch libraries had created their own systems to deal with porn. The printer for all stations is on the reference librarian's desk, the security people and aides and librarians all scan computer screens as they pass so that they can see what is on the screens and stop people using porn. One guy who came in to teach kids how to access porn was tresspassed and may not return to the library.
However much action a library takes to filter porn, it will not keep porn out of kids hands because there are internet coffee shops, and internet this and that, friends with internet and kids will (being bright enough to outstrip adults on anything to do with computers) find the porn. I know I have had it come up on my computer without me requesting it. It wouldn't go away and I had to turn off the computer to get it to stop. Too weird!
While I, too, want to keep kids away from porn, I do not want all the patrons of the library kept away from information they need. It becomes an issue of constant vigilence.
Librarians walk the razor between their first amendment stance--freedom to read--and the protection of children from porn. I think that, in dealing with this issue, I would like to have the librarians (PLUM) and library staff to weigh in on their ideas about contending with the dilemna before winding up in a position of jumping to a conclusion out of a knee-jerk reaction to porn.
Wizard Marks, Central
Eva Young wrote:
The Minneapolis Librarians suing the public library regarding pornography
is mentioned in this press release.I've been to Central Library a lot of times, and I've never seen the
behavior mentioned.The Minnesota Family Council is affiliated with the Family Research
Council.The CIPA is just another top down un-funded federal mandate. In this case,
it's not going to be particularly effective at what it purports to do.
School Board and Library Board Candidates -- for the folks who haven't
mentioned what their thoughts about Internet Filters, I'd be interested in
hearing your take on it.Eva
Eva Young
Minneapolis, MN>http://www.frc.org/press/index.cfm?get=recent&id=P01E02
>
>---------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------
>
>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 2, 2001
>CONTACT:Kristin Hansen, (202) 393-2100
>FOR RADIO:Kelly Green
>
>* * * May is Victims of Pornography Month * * *
>
>FAMILY GROUPS RAISE AWARENESS ABOUT THE
>DANGERS OF PORNOGRAPHY
>
>Washington, D.C. -- Family Research Council (FRC) joined
>with a coalition of pro-family groups, experts, lawmakers
>and pornography victims in Washington Wednesday to speak out
>about the dangers of pornography during Victims of
>Pornography Month. Speakers included Rep. Steve Largent (R-
>Okla.), Rep. Jim Ryun (R-Kan.), FRC's Jan LaRue, Wendy
>Wright from Concerned Women for America and Bob Peters of
>Morality in Media. Testimony was given by victims of
>pornography, including a woman who appeared in pornographic
>publications as a child and was used as a child prostitute,
>and the therapist of a 9-year old boy who abused another
>child after viewing porn. FRC'S senior director of Legal
>Studies, Jan LaRue testified about librarians, the latest
>victims of pornography:
>
>"There are librarians across America, who work in libraries
>where hard-core porn is turning their workplace into a
>cesspool. Men, sexually aroused as a result of looking at
>porn, engage in lewd conduct. Ask Laura Morgan, a librarian
>at the Chicago Public Library, who won't take her own
>children to the library because, as Laura described it, her
>library has become a dirty peep show booth. Young boys are
>asking librarians to help them find pictures of naked women.
>Ask Heidi Borton, a former librarian in King County,
>Washington, who quit her job after ten years because her
>conscience would no longer permit her to help little boys
>find porn. To work in such a library is to work in a
>hostile environment. Ask Wendy Adamson and the librarians
>at the Minneapolis Library who've joined Wendy in filing a
>complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
>because of what the presence of porn has done to their
>workplace. All of the librarians across the county who
>identify with the problem need to take back their libraries.
>Librarians, don't be a victim of porn."
>
>Currently, there are two prominent pornography cases before
>the courts. The Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA)
>requires schools and libraries to install filters on all
>federally-funded computers or on Internet access available
>to children. The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a
>lawsuit to block the law from taking effect. In the case of
>Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition, FRC has filed a friend-
>of-the-court brief to the U.S. Supreme Court to defend the
>"virtual child porn" law. The Ninth Circuit Court has
>declared the statute unconstitutional as applied to computer
>generated images of child sex.
>
>FRC is urging the Justice Department to step up enforcement
>of obscenity laws, especially during May, Victims of
>Pornography Month.
>
>
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>
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