Plano Edges Closer to Filters
for All Computers
“I don’t see why the taxpayers of Plano have to fund unfiltered computers,” Plano (Tex.) City Council member John Roach, Jr. stated May 12 during a meeting on an acceptable-use policy they had instructed library officials to draft in March. Roach was objecting to a provision for one unfiltered machine per library, and suggested that Plano Public Library contract with a commercial Internet service provider that filtered sites to absolve itself of inadvertently blocking protected speech. A committee of council members and library trustees will examine the possibility, Director Joyce Baumbach told American Libraries.
Baumbach said the draft policy had proposed four levels of Internet access, as recommended by the city attorney; customized bar codes on children’s cards would indicate what level of access their parents had allowed them. In the meantime, the library continues offering unfiltered access, with signage on each computer warning people not to access illegal materials.
Posted May 17, 1999.
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