Chicago PL Internet Hits
Are Less Than 5% Sexually Explicit
A study conducted this summer by the Chicago Public Library reveals that less than 5% of all CPL Internet traffic goes to sexually explicit Web sites and less than 2% occurs on children’s computers. CPL monitored the library network of 497 machines during June, July, and August.
Disclosing the study results to American Libraries September 22, CPL Director of Library Automation Joyce Latham said the library had been challenged by the city council “to provide adequate security against pornography within our system.” The data is preliminary and the monitoring will continue, she said, but so far it “allows us to paint the far-right agenda as much ado about not very much.”
CPL has been targeted by Family Friendly Libraries and Filtering Facts as one of the “10 most unsafe public libraries for children” because it allows unfiltered access to the Internet. Latham noted that the study also investigated which Web sites would have been blocked by filtering software if CPL used it. Among them: the library’s own Web site and the Chicago Police Department’s sex offender page.
Posted September 27, 1999.
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