Is filtering censorship?
By Dan ArmstrongTuesday, September 22, 2009 at 3:17 p.m.
A hot debate comes to a peak in Owosso. The question, should computers at a public library have unfiltered internet access?
The debate got started when a 10-year-old girl told her grandmother she saw a man viewing adult material at a library computer.
Some say, adults should be able to access unfiltered internet at the library.
Others say, it's an issue of child safety, and they don't want their tax dollars paying for porn.
Ronald DeHaas, president of Covenant Eyes, an internet accountability company in Owosso, and supporter of internet filtering at public libraries says, "Censorship is a harsh word, but the fact is, every library in Michigan practices censorship. If you go down to our library and ask 'Where is your pornography section?' We don't have one. There isn't one."
DeHaas says, what's good for books is good for the internet. "I don't like the word censorship. I look at it as community standards. That's what it is. Our community standards is that certain books do not appear in our library. All I'm asking is that we have the same standard for the sites that are on the computers on my tax dollars."
Hua....
Well, when I was a tech we didn't allow porn on our computers either, mostly because of the virus's that come with most porn sites. But also because it's sexist and wrong.
This really shouldn't even be an issue where the general public is concerned, because it's not a book. This really isn't literature, as we know it, and it's not research- porn isn't even art to be honest. There is nothing beautiful behind porn. And if you don't think so, look at the baleful, blank eyes of most girls have after posing for porno pictures or starring in porno movies. That really does tell the story.
They aren't really happy about it....They were just paid....
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I guess the painkillers wipe out your memory along with your ethics.
Keith Olbermann
1 comment:
Update on this issue:
After over 300 Owosso residents showed up at the last library Board meeting, most of whom were for the filtering initiative, the Board agreed to give an Internet policy proposal to the library's attorney. At this point the Board wants to settle any remaining legal questions around filtering all public computers.
According to Section 6 of the Michigan Library Privacy Act (a.k.a. Michigan Public Act 212), “if a library offers use of the internet . . . the governing body of that library shall adopt and require enforcement of a policy that restricts access to minors.” Libraries can choose one of two ways to accomplish this:
Option A: By reserving one or more computers specifically for minors (restricted from receiving obscene or sexually explicit matter) and by reserving one or more computers specifically for adults (that are not restricted).
Option B: By utilizing a system or method designed to prevent a minor from viewing obscene or sexually explicit matter.
As you can see, Option B is sort of an open-ended statement: any "system or method" will do as long as it satisfies the desires of the State to restrict Internet access to minors.
The community members who want default filtering on all computer terminals say they want to go with Option B and then filter all library computers the way federally funded libraries do. This policy is detailed in the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA), signed into law by President Clinton. Challenging this law, the American Library Association did not want the requirement of filtering on all public terminals as outlined by CIPA. But they lost in the Supreme Court because the Justices did not see any violation of First Amendment rights. As long as an adult can request that an overblocking filter is disabled “to enable access for bona-fide research or other lawful purposes,” there is no undue stress on anyone’s rights.
Essentially, even though the Owosso branch is not required by law to filter all the computers, certain citizens want the federal guidelines to be followed (1) to restrict children access to pornography, and (2) to discourage adults from using the library to look at pornography.
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