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Ottawa Board Finally Favors FiltersSome two weeks after the Ottawa Public Library Board in Ontario voted against the installation of blocking software on public-access workstations, trustees reversed themselves and voted 11–1 that patrons under 17 be required to use filtered machines unless their parents choose otherwise. The April 30 policy change was hailed by some citizens as well as OPL Director Barbara Clubb, who said in the May 1 Ottawa Citizen, “I think it is a wonderful resolution.”Clubb had urged trustees to approve a smart-card system that would prevent youngsters without parental approval from having unfettered Internet sessions at the library. She anticipated that the system's 280 computers would be outfitted with the swipe-card technology by the end of June, at a cost of some Can$20,000 (U.S. $14,082). “This board has listened to the overwhelming input from the public and I'm glad we will be providing filter protection for children using the Internet,” board Chair Rick Chiarelli told the Citizen. For months, the issue of whether minors—and, according to the Canadian Union of Public Employees, library staffers—were being exposed unwillingly to sexually explicit Web images had been making lurid headlines and soon became the focus of an as-yet-unresolved union grievance. Among the few dissenters on the board was Elisabeth Arnold. Although she voted for the new policy, she expressed her discomfort with “how we define pornography,” adding that trustees shouldn't “be trying to determine morality.” Board member Lyse Champagne, the sole “no” vote, objected to allowing “17-year-old adults to use these machines totally inappropriately. And we're saying that this is fine in the name of research? Give me a break.” Posted May 5, 2003. |
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