“All of our computers are supervised to the best of our abilities,” Benkert said, adding, “We turn the screens toward the public areas so the staff can check them. We don’t have any private places.” In this incident, the policy seems to have worked: Groton Police Chief Kelly M. Fogg told the Day that the library called law enforcement after a staff member observed a patron “possibly viewing child pornography” on a computer in the adult area.
Declining to comment on the specific investigation, Benkert explained, “We try to buy the best filters we can afford and that the programmers can write” but that “filters work on words; they can’t see pictures.” GPL’s five-page usage policy sets the minimum age for onsite internet access at 9, and only when accompanied by an adult. Until they reach 6th grade, youngsters may only surf on children’s-area machines. Adult patrons can have filters turned off on request for bona fide research, per the Supreme Court’s 2003 ruling.
“I can readily concur with the free-speech issue,” city council member James L. Streeter told the newspaper. Still, he maintained that the library was not doing enough because he has seen teens seated with adults in the adult-workstation area. He recommended restricting adults-only computers to “a separate room where the kids would not have any contact or have a chance to walk by.”
Posted January 6, 2006.