ACLU Decries Austin PL's
Adults-Only Workstations
A year after installing CyberPatrol blocking software on all 56 of its public Internet access terminals, the Austin (Tex.) Public Library is halfway through a 60-day experiment--offering filter-free access at four specially designed workstations to patrons who are at least 18 years old.
The test was condemned by the ACLU even before its March 9 launch. "The only reason we haven't sued is because we're negotiating," Texas chapter ACLU executive director Jay Jacobson told the Austin American-Statesman March 5. Also involved in those ongoing negotiations with the library is a citizens' panel appointed to advise APL officials about Internet issues.
The group devised the compromise as an olive branch to free-speech advocates who have protested the overreach of CyberPatrol's site blocks, as well as to people looking to protect minors from objectionable materials. The unfettered workstations feature shielded monitors recessed behind keyboards.
Posted April 6, 1998.
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