Shouldn’t porn + public library = public indecency?

I work in an academic library and our policy is to call security who will handle the situation and explain that they are making the environment uncomfortable for others and distracting others from learning. We don’t have filters b/c we have a large medical department and there were problems with legitimate searches relating to anatomy being blocked. I just don’t understand how these people can have so little shame to do this in public. I also hate games. I realize they are no where near as offensive as porn but if you are in an academic library do something academic. Why come if not to learn?

Oh, ick. :(
I just can’t imagine how creepy…
Next time, roll a chair up next to him and start muttering the rosary under your breath. I’ll bet he gets up and leaves.

Thank you Danielle for writing about this.  At our local library this is also allowed.  Although there are privacy screens, I am still disgusted by it. Since this is a small library, the computers are situated close to the childrens’ section. Our library also has wi-fi and several patrons can be seen after hours in the parking lot sitting in their cars using the library wi-fi.  Obviously they could be using the wi-fi for legitimate purposes, but I doubt it.

Wow. This is really disturbing…and sad. I wouldn’t know what to do if I was in your position, either. I guess the best thing we can do is to pray…

Thankfully the library system I used to work in had a policy against porn.  We even made sure we could see all the computer screens from the front desk where we worked.  If we caught you twice, you lost computer privileges for 6 months.  Who knew when I started working there that part of the description was “porn police”.  That plus the fact we had to watch the family restrooms that 2 teenagers didn’t go in there together.

Gross.

The thing is, you don’t want to confront a man like that. I mean, you want to but you’re almost AFRAID to, you know?

Yuck yuck yuck. Wanting to cover my head with sand right now. Knowing that doesn’t solve the problem.

Isn’t that a hostile work environment for the librarian (i.e. sexual harrassment)?

Now that’s just creepy! If they can’t ban it, at least move the computers away from the childrens’ section, so they don’t stumble upon it!

In the past, I worked at a reference desk at a county library.  That was a problem then too.  One time a man was downloading child porn and the head librarian called the police.  In our library, we did not tolerate any porn or porn like (may not be naked, but obviously offensive) viewing.  We had a man that would like to use the extra large monitor we had granted to us for the blind to view, and he did not understand why it was offensive. 

There defiantly should be a law against viewing porn at the library. It is not what the computers are for, morally wrong and it hurts society. 

Filters would help, but they also cause problems too. 

Besides this factor, there are also a lot of mentally ill and weird people who use the library - some harmless and others not.  So it is not as safe of a place you think for children.  Still a great place for children to go, just realize who else uses it too.

Wow Ohio’s libraries must filter but the school’s don’t have to. That’s odd !
As far as this whole thing goes, I am shocked that all states don’t have laws against this. Since they don’t that means that even though a librarian may ask someone ( women can be just as guilty as men) to not visit the porn sights, they can decline to log off and there is nothing that anyone can do, right?
This being said, perhaps someone should suggest to the local board (perhaps in the form of a petition)that the computers be moved where the screen is not in plain sight of children or those offended by “adult” material. This would make sense anyway because porn is not the only thing that many people don’t want their children to see.

Under the 11th Circuit Court decision ACLU v. Johnson, it is actually considered a constitutional right to have access to unfiltered pornography on library computers.

There is no uproar because free “speech” fundamentalists have successfully won most influential people over to their cause. Or perhaps because we’re too embarrassed to demand decency.

Unfortunately, porn in public libraries is all too common.  Even more unfortunate is that many, perhaps most, librarians consider viewing such filth as a patron’s 1st amendment right.  How they can interpret the 1st Amendment to include taxpayer funded access to porn is beyond me, but such is the logic of leaders and many rank and file in librarianship.  As a group, librarians are more liberal than almost any profession.  I work at a large public library system in the mid-Atlantic region.  It is our library system’s policy not to challenge or prevent patrons from viewing porn.  In fact two employees of our county’s Homeland Security department got in trouble for telling a patron to stop view porn.  The most we can do is ask the patron to use a privacy screen over the monitor.  I love many aspects of librarianship, but I detest my profession’s nonchalance regarding porn.

Our Local library, small town Iowa, has nanny controls.  You have to have the librarian bypass it occasionally for safe things too.

I guess I’m not surprised, but what next? Do libraries subscribe to pornographic magazines for their patrons? I know you’ll find books about s*x on the shelves. I wouldn’t make a very good librarian because I’d break all the rules and throw everything unworthy out (including porn man)!

I have a 21 year old son in jail for sexualy assaulting a minor.  The investigator said that this happens in every stratta of life; Rich, poor, middle class,  public school, home school.  “Porn is a triger for most,” he said.  It is as adictive as gambling, drugs, or alcohol.  There has to be some way to protect our children from those that are affected, and to keep them from such an addiction.

Once upon a time, my family loved the library.  As we live only one block away from our local public library, the children and I would walk to the library nearly every day.  We were well known by the library staff and were grateful to attend every special program that the library offered for children.  We would always leave the library with huge stacks of books that we would immediately spread out all over the kitchen table as we spent the afternoon lost in the glorious delight of reading.

Until…in an effort to allow my nine year old son, who was in 3rd grade at the time, a little bit of independence, I allowed him to go to the library with a classmate instead of with the family.  When he came home, he pulled a picture out of his back pocket and told my husband and I that his friend had printed it on the library computer.  It was a pornographic picture.  I was LIVID!!!!!  I took the picture to the mother of my sons’s friend and she was immediately reduced to tears.  I took the picture to the library and the response was, “Well, you can’t expect the library to be a safe place for children.”  What?  Why not, I wondered incredulously.

So, I wrote letters.  I wrote to the editor of our local newspaper and to our larger metropolitan newspaper.  I called a friend of mine who is a lawyer and congressman.  He contacted the library director and was told that the policy is that it is against the rights of the children to restrict their access to the Internet beyond a few computer-blocking devices that were already in place.  My friend suggested that I attend the next board meeting with my concerns.

So, I gathered up some of my sisters and my closest friends and we attended the board meeting.  I demanded that they put tighter controls on the computers.  I demanded that they move the computers out of the children’s department, or at the very least, move the computers in full view of the children’s librarian so that someone would always be looking over the children’s shoulders.  I was told that these were all infeasible options.

As a band-aid solution to pacify this angry mother, the library developed a form that parents could sign restricting their children’s access to the Internet and “R” rated movies.  They did not advertise the fact that this form was available and if a parent wanted to sign it, they had to ask the librarian for the form, as it was not out in a visible location.  I signed the forms for each of my children and then dropped the issue, but no longer allowed my children to attend the library without my husband or I, for a few years anyway.  Although this was a long time ago, I am still floored that children have “rights” at the library that they wouldn’t have anywhere else.

People do have a first amendment right to view pornography, because it is not up to any one person or group of people to determine what is decent and what is not. I don’t think the solution is passing more laws banning more things, but rather, figuring out why people think it’s socially ok to view pornography in a library and addressing that aspect. To me it’s more a question of civility than legality.

Disclaimer: I am a librarian, and feel very strongly that a group of citizens doesn’t have a right to determine the legality of any type of material. We do have a right, though, to shame people who think it’s ok to watch porn in the library.

Are there any laws against photographing the guy and posting his picture somewhere public with the caption:  Parents caution:  This man views internet pornography in public settings.  Maybe he would be shamed out of doing it again?

Regrettably, our library also allows porn viewing.  We need to unite and vote with our dollars.  I have repeatedly told the librarians and the library system that I will never vote for the library until they use filters.  How has free internet for perverts become a first amendment right?  Especially in a place where children congregate after school?  It is terrible.

Some of these comments are caught up in the legality of viewing pornography.  One should not look to law to safeguard decency. Anyone seeing such viewing in a public library should stand behind the perpetrator(pervert?)and say out loud, “That’s great porn you have their, Mister?  What website is that?”  The law allows him to view such stuff; it allows you to look over his shoulder and comment.

Our city library went through an issue dealing with filters and such a few years ago.  They opted to not receive some money because it would require limiting access on the internet and they didn’t want to do that.  I don’t know what their policy regarding pornography specifically is, but they do keep the computers well away from children’s areas (not that it is okay to view porn away from kids, but still better than nothing I guess).  They argued that the filters would restrict access to non-offensive sites that may be used for research, etcetera.  The biggest impact their decision had was that people who do not live in the city limits had to start paying a fee to check out materials (50 dollars for a family for one year) since the library no longer received money from the county, or something.  So, I guess my tax dollars could be going to allow someone access to porn, unfortunately.

Call Florida and see what our laws are.  plain and simple… boom you can doit.

This is the south honey…  check it out.

This is what I spent last summer doing……fighting porn in our public library.  My 13 year old son was exposed in our public library.  I had no idea that this kind of thing could happen in a public library.  The library draws young children to it with its books and various different programs.  Parents assume this is a safe place and that our libraries support a child’s “right” to a healthy and natural childhood.  All public libraries should make efforts to protect children and inform parents of the potential risk.  Thank you for spreading the word.

When I was at library school the standard answer was that parents, not librarians, are responsible for what children are exposed to at the library. They have a point in that in may not be a good idea to have the kids go to the library alone anymore - if it ever was. I know it’s a different order of magnitude, but kids can still be exposed to inappropriate books and magazines, even things that have a legitimate place in the library. Not to mention the unsafe people that sometimes can be found at libraries, as already mentioned.

Having said all this, I find the above-mentioned policy to be, at bottom, a cop-out - like the motion picture industry refusing any rating system and washing its hands of kids being exposed to the filth in their movies because “its the parents’ responsibility.”

It is, in effect, the official position of the American Library Association (ALA), which exalts free access to library materials as the ultimate good to the exclusion of any other consideration (except immanent danger of death, perhaps?). See ALA’s Library Bill of Rights:

http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/oif/statementspols/statementsif/librarybillrights.cfm

and “Free Access to Libraries for Minors,” an interpretation of article 5:

http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/oif/statementspols/statementsif/interpretations/freeaccesslibraries.cfm

“Every restriction on access to, and use of, library resources, based solely on the chronological age, educational level, literacy skills, or legal emancipation of users violates Article V” of the “Library Bill of Rights.” So the problem is bigger than just porn on library computers - if a child wants to check out an R-rated movie, for example, a librarian should not hinder this in any way, even by putting ratings of any kind on library materials, since these materials are available to adults. In fact, it’s not clear to me that, under their interpretation of this article, a librarian could do anything to prevent a minor from viewing porn at the library, since they cannot legitimately stop adults from viewing it.

We have filters on our libraries for serious stuff in our libraries in Tampa.  We also have a Christian presence and it is okay here. We have a Christian radio station here WBVm 90.5 fm run by our Catholic diosese. We do not isolate ourselves here, so they don’t do this.  Other faith communities such as the Islam and Jewish folks get involved too. 

Call our local head of libraries and see what the cultural attitudes are here.  Tampa Hillsborough Regional Library system. 

I have noticed that we don’t over react here.  Mr Caton of this Family group is the only one that over reacts here.  Most people get along because we sit down and get the job done and there is not a problem.  Find a common ground here if you are do do this, other folks will not be the only ones having their say. 

Florida is recession central but most are always working.  We work stuff out and try to do so.  Visit us b/c we do it for the kids. There are cheap places to stay across from our parish and you will see it. Call our diocese and ask for some kind of tour because the West Coast of Fla is the place to be for famiilies.  Prepare to work if you are going to move here.  There is no income tax but there are user fees for roads and sewer and etc.  We are still the place to be. It is very family. We just had a parade for Gasparilla yesterday. It was for kids. Very family here.

women watch porn also

Check for the book, “It’s Perfectly Normal” by Robbie Harris found in the kids’ section.  Yes, tax payers pay for easy access to porn for youth—-without warnings!

@Joe: What an awful book! I just looked it up….ew! I love the line about how people can “protect themselves from having a baby.” Not even “prevent” but “protect”! I look at my beautiful little girl and wonder why people think she’s so scary!

MightyMighty, God bless you and your daughter.  I hope you will homeschool your little girl if at all possible.  There is not a school exempt (unless it is a Traditional Catholic School) from pornography in the classroom.  It’s shocking but true!  Now that you’ve looked at “It’s Perfectly Normal”  look at the curriculum in parochial schools, a serious disconnect from what Holy Mother Church teaches: 
http://www.motherswatch.net/content/view/12/6/ - Part 1
http://www.motherswatch.net/content/view/15/6/ - Part 2
Pope Pius XI (and other Popes) defined what is not to be in classrooms.  Catholics are bound by his Authority and none can change what has been clearly defined.  Curriculae implemented in parochial schools today in the way of sex education violate the order of Holy Mother Church.  No wonder ‘Catholic’ universities and colleges graduate students with less faith then when they entered per Tim Drake’s reporting in N C R.  Students entering have had years of indoctrinations that purposely intended to ruin any formation of a Catholic sense.  Randy Engels in her book, “Sex Education, the Final Plague” calls it the raising of new barbarians.  These students from parochial schools have no sound footing to combat their teachers and professors who are known to oppose Catholic doctrine.  Catholic females in ‘Catholic’ colleges and universities according to studies are more promiscuous than their peers.  Has the world ever been more in desperate need of man of valor,  a Holy Priesthood?

Two years later and how would you know it is porn???

Have you seen porn before??  Do you have a legal definition of what porn is or do you write on hearsay or Ms. Danielle’s reaction. 

Gee,  THE NCR dropped you all and went to EWTN TO PROVE they were better than you all. 

Funny, my prediction is the Faith and Family is going to be dropped by the Digest who bought you all nearly a year ago. 

Ms. Bean your days as editor and “I am a better than you Catholic are NUMBERED.”