Library to Filter Online Porn

Pioneer Press, 3/17/06 - Reversing a long-standing policy, the Ramsey County Library Board this week voted unanimously to install anti-porn software on its library computers.

"The decision is a reluctant one," library director Susan Nemitz said Thursday. "There's a lot of concern about unfettered access to information, and that we don't want to be a group that is censoring what we are reading. But I think the Internet has posed difficulties for us that we never imagined 10 years ago."

Current policy prohibits the library's computer users from accessing pornography or material that would create a threatening or hostile environment for others.

But some people break the rules.

Librarians at the system's seven branches report that patrons do frequent pornographic Web sites, sometimes printing the images. Staff are then put in the uncomfortable position of confronting the users.

"One of our key concerns as a library board was to not inflict our staff with having to find these images on computers and to be subjected to unwanted information," said board president David Norrgard.

Three years ago, a dozen librarians from the Minneapolis Public Library filed suit in federal court alleging that they were subject to a hostile work environment from patrons surfing online sex-related sites, printing out material and even masturbating in the library.

The library paid the plaintiffs $435,000 to settle the case and has since installed filters on its computers.

Another motivation for the change in Ramsey County is the potential effect on children.

"The whole goal of the library is to be a community gathering place, and we don't want to have any patron feel like it's not an environment they would want to bring their family to," Nemitz said.
The Ramsey County Library Board's decision Wednesday night brings it into compliance with a 2000 federal law called the Children's Internet Protection Act.

The act, which initially faced a court challenge but was later upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, requires libraries and schools to install filters for obscene and pornographic material.

Those who fail to comply lose federal money. In the case of Ramsey County, it amounted to about $20,000 a year, Nemitz said.

"In these tight times, I cannot say that the money issue was not important," she said.

The filters are scheduled to be in place by June 30, in time for the library to qualify for next year's funds.

The board's decision was also influenced by improvement in the filtering software, making it far superior to what was around in the past, Nemitz said.

Earlier software sometimes filtered out material that was appropriate, such as information on breast cancer.

"What we are completely focused on is the issue of porn on public access computers in the library," Norrgard said. "And that is the only subject we are trying to filter."

Parents should be aware, however, that no filter is infallible, Nemitz said.

"The library really relies on parents to be responsible for their children, both in terms of their reading materials as well as the Internet."

The cost for the filtering software is about $12,000 for three years, plus $4,000 for a server, Nemitz said.

Federal law also requires libraries to allow patrons 17 and older to bypass the filter if they wish.
In choosing to install filters, the Ramsey County system joins most others in the area, including St. Paul, Minneapolis, and the counties of Dakota, Washington and Anoka. Hennepin County uses filters on children's computers only.

Ramsey County operates libraries in Maplewood, Roseville, Shoreview, North St. Paul, White Bear Lake, Arden Hills and Mounds View. It has 241,744 library cardholders, a number that includes patrons from St. Paul and elsewhere who can use the suburban system.

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Virginia Libraries May Get Money for Porn Filters

Loudoun Times Mirror, 3/1/06 - A House of Delegates bill that would have forced state-funded libraries in Virginia to eliminate Internet pornography from their public computers was watered down in a Senate committee last week.

If kept in its original form, House Bill 570, sponsored by Del. Samuel Nixon Jr. (R-Chesterfield), would have required public libraries, including the 21 in Fairfax County and Fairfax City, to install software that would have filtered out pornographic material from the Web.

However, because of the committee's changes, the bill, if approved by the entire General Assembly this month, would not require the filters, but only make limited money available to libraries wishing to purchase the software.

A week earlier, a similar Senate bill never made it out of a finance committee.

Since public libraries nationwide started offering Internet access to customers at least a decade ago, anti-porn groups have fought hard to block the viewing of pornographic sites on library computers. However, opponents say the filters are too costly and would infringe on citizens' civil liberties and limit Internet access of those doing research.

In Fairfax County, the library system does not have filters installed on any of its computers available to the public, according to Lois Kirkpatrick, a spokesperson with the Fairfax County Public Library System.

With respect to children stumbling across pornographic sites at libraries, she said, stating policy, that "librarians are not legally empowered to act in loco parentis." Or, in other words, take the place of a child's parent.

In addition, she said county libraries do receive some federal E-rate funding—money earmarked for communication devices—that would require them to install the software. But, she added, none of that money goes toward public computers. "So we don't have to have filters," she said.

Del. Mark Sickles (D-43rd), a former member of the county's Public Library Board of Trustees, called Nixon's bill a yearly occurrence.

He said complaints of people viewing pornographic sites at county libraries were rare during his 12 years on the board.

"These computers are wide open" to the rest of the library, he said. "People were not looking at improper material, by and large."

He also remembered the software being too expensive. However, HB 570 would make available $50 per computer for libraries wishing to purchase the software.

Sean Connaughton, the Republican chairman of the Prince William County Board of Supervisors, had anti-porn software installed on his county's computers, including those at public libraries, four years ago, and with little resistance, he explained.

Several years earlier, Loudoun County tried the same, before a federal judge ruled the filters unconstitutional.

Connaughton, who said his children regularly frequent libraries by themselves, made requiring the filters statewide one of his campaign issues during his run to become a candidate for lieutenant governor last year.

He said libraries "should be a place for learning, not for being exposed to this [pornography]."

Victoria Cobb, executive director of the conservative Family Foundation of Virginia in Richmond, called Nixon's bill, after it came out of committee, "gutted."

She warned that, because libraries are not required to install filters, they are becoming places of operation for sexual predators. She noted the recent arrest in Portsmouth, Va., of a man who thought he was propositioning a minor for sex via a library's computer. However, the 13-year-old he was chatting with turned out to be an undercover police officer.

Cobb called forcing libraries to install anti-porn filters one of her organization's top priorities.

Because, she said, "children should not be exposed to something like this in a taxpayers' library."

Libraries Struggle To Keep Porn Off Computers

TOWSON, Md., WLKY, 7/28/05 - An irate mother in Maryland claims that her teenage daughter was exposed to Internet pornography at a Baltimore County library, Baltimore television station WBAL reported.

The station said it may look like the person sitting next to you at a public library computer is doing legitimate research, but a closer look may show you a different story.

The station reported that when Willa Taylor's 17-year-old daughter went to the Northpoint library to do some research, she was shocked at what she caught a glimpse of on the computer next to her.

"She said while she was there, there was a man sitting right next to her and watching porn," Taylor said. "She saw the man's ... you know ... and the other picture was a woman's legs straight up in the air."

Her daughter was too embarrassed to speak with the station, but Taylor was irate and called the library.

"If I would have walked up there myself and I would have seen this next to my daughter, I would have choked the man like a chicken and then I would have been the one getting in trouble because this man is showing my daughter nudity," Taylor said.

Four years ago, WBAL's hidden camera caught people in several areas openly viewing pornography on library computers. Since then, Congress passed the Children's Internet Protection Act, which requires libraries install filters to receive federal funding.

A reporter took Taylor's concerns to Baltimore County's public library director, Jim Fish.

"That's very traumatic," Fish said. "I feel sorry. As a father of two teens, I have a great deal of empathy."

Fish said the library has had filters in place for seven years -- even before the Children's Internet Protection Act. He said that although they are getting better, they are not 100 percent effective.

The programs are designed to filter out material that could be offensive, but they can also end up filtering out legitimate sites about subjects like breast cancer or AIDS. If a patron has a valid reason for accessing those sites, a librarian can help bypass the filter.

"What we are trying to do is balance your intellectual freedom and your right to privacy as an individual while making sure people are not doing illegal things and maintaining a reasonable environment for folks and safe environment for children," Fish said.

The Family Research Council lobbied to have filters put in libraries and said they are helping, but they're not enough.

"You have to be vigilant with the filter -- can't just depend on the filter to do all the work," Charmaine Yoest of the Family Research Council said. "Make sure it's current as possible, check the level the filter is set on."

Both Fish and the Council agree that supervision by the library staff is important as well. Fish said the library staff would ask people to leave if they abuse the Internet.

"If they fail to comply with the request we ask them to leave, and we have banned people from using the library for, say, 30 days when they are repeat offenders," Fish said.

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