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Phoenix Council Demands Porn Filters on All Library ComputersThe city council of Phoenix, Arizona, voted unanimously September 8 to bar adults from unrestricted Internet access on all public library computers. The action, spearheaded by Mayor Phil Gordon, would possibly put the Phoenix Public Library at odds with the Supreme Court’s June 2003 ruling on the Children’s Internet Protection Act, which leaves the door open for lawsuits through an improper or restrictive application of the act’s provision allowing adults to disable the filtering software.PPL Director Toni Garvey told American Libraries she was not surprised by the decision, which went into effect immediately and prevents adult patrons from choosing to disable the 8e6 Technologies software the library uses to block pornographic websites, as CIPA allows. “We’ve heard from people who are concerned about this,” American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona Executive Director Eleanor Eisenberg said in the September 9 Phoenix Arizona Republic. “We have several possible plaintiffs.” “I don’t believe that in our library, which is designed to be family-friendly, we should be obliged to provide access to these materials,” Mayor Gordon told the Republic. The action was prompted by the August 11 arrest of Charlton Glenn Ward, 33, a paroled sex offender who was in possession of child pornography that he admitted downloading at the library. Vice Mayor Peggy Blisten said the city was prepared for a legal battle. “Too many times, we stop short of what we want to do because we are afraid of going to court,” she said in the September 9 Republic. “I think this is a great case.” Robert Villaseñor Jr., a member of the library’s advisory board, told council members he didn’t think they “could prevail on this.” He warned they would be “removing a great wealth of information that ought to be available and is protected under the First Amendment.” Garvey told AL that inappropriate use of the computers by adults has not been a problem. “We’ve had some incidents over the years, but it was never a major area of concern from the public’s point of view,” she said. As for the sex offender Ward, “no one saw him download child pornography in the library. If we had seen anything like that, we would have called the Internet Crimes Division of the police. But we all know that he could have downloaded the content without actually looking at it,” she added. Posted September 10, 2004. |
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