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Re: new topic - library filtering software


The last word on this issue hasn't been written yet. The way the decision was written, there is ample opportunity in the future for another suit to be brought to readdress the issue, and I, personally, believe it should be readdressed.

Basically, adults should not have to ask permission to exercise their First Amendment rights. By making it necessary to do so, those rights are diminished and adults are reduced to the level of children themselves, asking permission to do something they should not have to ask permission to do. And, this is not necessary; it is entirely possible to protect children without resorting to full-time filters on all library computers.

First, many libraries either do not receive or receive very little funding from the Federal government. Those which receive no funding are unaffected by this particular ruling; libraries which do receive Federal funding may want to evaluate the amount of funding they receive vs. the cost to install and maintain a filtering system. It's possible that, by the time they install and maintain filtering on a system-wide basis, they may not have that much remaining from their Federal subsidy, and may decide to forego the subsidy. (My husband is an ex officio member of our county library board of trustees and tells me that our county library system receives no funding from the federal government and, therefore, this ruling does not apply to this particular system.)

However, any of the 50 states (in my case, Virginia) may at some point legislate that all public libraries must have filters on their systems in order to receive state money. In that case, many, but not all, public libraries would be severely impacted since, I think, much library funding actually comes from state coffers. I believe this is the case with many county library systems here in Virginia, and, Peter, from what you say, this is apparently the case in California. (Our own county system is fortunate: only $223,000 out of a $9 million budget comes from the state.)

There are, however, ways to protect children and observe the law without diminishing the rights of adults, if libraries choose to use these methods, and these ways should bring the libraries into compliance with Federal requirements. (Although, who knows? This is one area where more suits may end up being filed.)

(1) Computers for children can be put in a separate area from computers for adults, and access to these areas can be restricted to the appropriate age group (or parents accompanying their children, in the children's areas). Other adults can be barred from using computers in these areas, and children can be barred from using computers in adult areas.

(2) Libraries can require that all computer-using patrons be members of the library, and the computer becomes operational only when the patron's library card is inserted into the system. When an individual gets his or her library card, he selects the level of filtering he wishes to have, i.e.,  parents would choose filtering for their children, but may choose no filtering for their own cards. Thereafter, whenever that child inserts his or her card into the computer to turn it on, the computer recognizes the card number and automatically turns on the filtering system. When the mother inserts her card in the computer, the computer recognizes that number and the filtering system is turned off. I'm no geek, so I don't know how this system works, technically, but I do know that this is the system we have in our county library system, and it works beautifully, so I'm told.

Peter, I sympathize with your system's having people coming in off the street placing bets and looking at porn. I know this must happen in some systems, but fortunately, this has never been a problem in the libraries in our suburban/rural county. (I think we've had only a couple of incidents where porn was accessed, and one was by an elected official trying to draw attention to the possibilities. He must have spent a lot of time researching the subject at home. He knew exactly which sites to go to!)

In any case, computer use by children should always be supervised. The merchants of porn have all sorts of ingenious ways to get around the filters, and absolutely no filter is foolproof, as a friend of mine, who works in a school system with filtering in Washington State, discovered to her horror.

In her case, two students were sent to the office because they had pulled up porn on a classroom computer. The boys insisted that they hadn't done it intentionally. When the principal went to the classroom and used the address the boys had used (it was for, if I remember correctly, equipment photos on a NASA website), sure enough, she got porn too. Somehow, the porn folks had managed to break into NASA's system and get their stuff on line, listed as a space equipment! So much for filtering!

Cheers,

Lina

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