The Hillsborough County (Fla.) Commission issued a directive July 12 that will force the Tampa–Hillsborough County Public Library System to install WebSense software to block sexual images on all but one of its 156 public-access Internet terminals systemwide. However, the order will affect only three machines, since the library now filters all public computers except four in the main facility.
County Administrator Dan Kleman had recommended the policy change as an alternative to Commissioner Ronda Storm’s proposal to filter every terminal. “I am not talking about bare-breasted women,” commissioner Ronda Storms said at the July 12 meeting. “I’m talking about the worst of the worst.”
According to Florida law, a commission cannot change library policy unless the county administrator initiates the action, a restriction that commissioner Chris Hart has vowed to lobby against, according to the July 13 St. Petersburg Times. “We appoint the library board; we raise the taxes. We also set the community standards,” Hart told the paper.
Posted July 17, 2000.