Joint-Use Library Corners Porn Surfers

http://www.ala.org/ala/alonline/currentnews/newsarchive/2005abc/february2005a/corners.cfm

$node.absurl

$node.contribution("Title")

$node.absurl

Posted February 18, 2005.

Joint-Use Library Corners Porn Surfers

A complaint from a parent of a student attending Oak Park (Calif.) High School has prompted officials to move two of the library’s adult-use computers to a far corner so students won’t accidentally see the explicit websites frequented by two regular adult male patrons. A branch of the Ventura County Library that also serves the Oak Park Unified School District high school, the library offers unfiltered computers for adults per a 1998 court order that resulted from a Libertarian Party suit to secure unfettered access. A separate bank of filtered computers is reserved for the students’ use.

“What happens during public library hours is in the public domain,” explained district Superintendent Tony Knight in the February 16 Agoura Hills Acorn. “We want to do everything in our power during school library hours to protect our students from viewing adult material.” However, several parents have said it is not enough to move the machines; they would rather the library establish a separate internet room for adults only.

Oak Park High School Principal Lynn McCormack told NBC-TV’s Los Angeles affiliate KNBC-4 that the two porn-surfing adults’ online preferences “was one of those things that we just had not thought of.” Noting that it was the men’s constitutional right to use the unfiltered county-library machines, she emphasized, “Our students do not have access to those computers.”

Ventura County Library does not receive federal funds for internet connectivity, and so is not required to comply with the Children’s Internet Protection Act.

Posted February 18, 2005.