Sonoma County (Calif.) Library commissioners unanimously reaffirmed July 26 the library’s four-year-old policy of maintaining filter-free public Internet computers. The decision follows several months of sometimes emotional discussion by citizens’ committees that advise the library and its branches throughout the county.
According to the July 27 Santa Rosa Press-Democrat, only one filtering proponent spoke at the commission’s meeting. “It’s not a dead issue for us,” said Alice Bailey of the Sonoma County-based group Help Oppose Pornography’s Exploitation, which had previously presented a pro-filtering petition signed by 2,400 county residents.
In southern California, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors approved a one-year pilot program to install filtering software on branch library computers used primarily by children. The filters will prohibit access to adult Web sites and monitor e-mails and chat rooms for inappropriate words and phrases, the July 26 San Diego Union-Tribune reported.
Posted July 31, 2000.