I hope I only have to say this once–and if you tell my husband, I’ll deny it–but I don’t always know all the answers.
Take library porn. If only you could. In a column I wrote a couple of weeks ago, I took libraries to task for not sufficiently monitoring and controlling children’s access to Internet pornography.
Referring to those who argue that access to pornography is protected by our free-speech rights, I wrote: “The signers of the (U.S.) Constitution must be begging for just one day of reincarnation so they can come down here and slap these silly people.”
I wrote the column in response to a California mother’s suing her local library for not restricting Internet access after her 12-year-old son came home from the library with a portfolio of pornography.
My conclusion, based on personal experience–as well as what I’ve read and what I believe about the harmful effects of pornography on children–was that libraries should install filtering software to reduce the likelihood that children will run across X-rated Web sites.
My e-mail box has been smoking. Yes, many wanted to share their personal pornographic favorites–always a risk when you write about this stuff–but others included librarians, patrons and parents, some of whom agreed with the need for filtering. Others took me to task on free-speech grounds.
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What’s clear from the response is that emotions are high, and disagreement fierce.
The most common complaint came from librarians who said they’re tired of “baby-sitting” kids left to kill time until their parents get off work. Apparently, a by-product of the dual-career family is that school kids are killing time in the library. Research, you know.
Other librarians said that installing, monitoring and updating filtering systems is time-consuming and unworkable. Among other problems, filtering software, which works by blocking access to specific words, also blocks access to legitimate research topics, such as breast cancer, they say.
All true. No one studied library science figuring to become a baby sitter. But ruing the fact that so many children are left unsupervised doesn’t mean we can pretend they’re not there. To permit children exposure to adult material is to participate in a form of abuse. Meanwhile, people needing to research breast cancer might seek a librarian’s help.
I never suggested, by the way, that all computers be filtered, just most–and certainly all those to which children have access. Surely some could be designated for adult use only–or for older children with parental permission.
These measures are inconvenient, but to slap a free-speech Band-Aid on what has become a hideous gash in our once-civil society is inexcusable. We have a problem here–a big one. Many children are being exposed to pornography. To find out how many, visit the Filtering Facts Web site (www.filteringfacts.org), which offers a complaint log of children accessing pornography in libraries.
Those who argue against filtering, meanwhile, play fast and loose with the almighty C-word–censorship. One pro-filtering librarian helped put this in perspective. Censorship, he said is “prior restraint of publication,” while filtering constitutes “collection development.” Just as librarians choose not to provide Hustler magazine to their patrons, they might wisely choose to eliminate or at least reduce access to pornographic Web sites.
The issue of Internet pornography is with us, probably forever. Surveys indicate that sex Web sites are the most popular on the Internet. But with our freedom to gaze upon sights unimaginable when our forefathers prescribed freedom of speech comes the burden of responsibility. Our first responsibility always is to protect children from harm–even at the expense of some personal freedom.
Therefore, and despite volumes of information generously provided by readers, I stand by my original conclusion that libraries should use filters until we come up with a better solution. It’s not a perfect answer, but it’s only one we have at the moment.
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