The Greenville County (S.C.) Library board unanimously approved an Internet policy July 17 mandating the installation of filters to block obscene images and child pornography. The new policy, which states it advances “governmental interests” such as “the promotion of respect for authority and traditional values, be they social, moral, or political,” leaves one unfiltered computer at each GCL branch and three at the main library.
The policy revision came some five months after the county commission ousted four GCL trustees opposed to filters in libraries. Two weeks later, Director Philip Ritter tendered his resignation at the new board’s request after refusing to install filters despite media reports that male patrons were frequenting sexually explicit Web sites at the library.
At the same meeting, trustees accepted an Operations Committee report charging that “more than 100 incidents have been documented in which patrons have viewed/displayed pornographic and/or obscene material” in a nine-month period. “I doubt the circumstances described . . . are unique to Greenville County,” committee Chair Douglas A. Churdar told American Libraries.
Posted July 24, 2000.