Looks like there’s finally movement in the long running battle over filters in Washington State. The Columbian and Katu.com report In response to complaints about pornography, libraries in the Vancouver area will filter the Internet for all computer users.
The Fort Vancouver Library board voted last night to change its policy. Previously, people over the age of 17 were allowed unfiltered access to the Internet.
No specifics on the filtering method were disclosed.
The thing is . . .
The problem with the hysterical screaming about how libraries need filters is that it is all out of proportion. Reactionaries will foam at the mouth about how “one is one too many”. If that is true, then nobody should be allowed to do anything in which someone might get hurt. Playground swings, swimming pools, etc, ad nauseum. . . .
And that “might” is a big factor in reactionism. Hypersensitivity is not about probability, it’s about possibility, and everything has the potential to be lethal. Questions of likelyhood are irrelevant to the reactionary.
Saving the children? Save the computers!
We filter all the computers at my library. I say that, and people look at me funny. The reason for the administration, and the community, might be completely different than the reason for me as the systems librarian.
The administration is naturally worried about what young patrons will encounter. We all are. Certainly, when the filters have hiccupped, someone inevitably discovered it, and set some pornography up on the computer (usually by minimizing a pop up window.) Sometimes, though, they figured out how to circumvent the security system and saved it as wallpaper, or whatever. Kids have seen it. Adults have seen it and gotten a little disturbed. I mean, it was quite unarguably pornography… being viewed in a public place. So far as I know, that’s illegal.
So I understand exactly where the administration of my library, and this library, is coming from.
From the systems angle, when we were running Windows (which we are no longer) there was another problem stemming from people viewing porn… Spyware. Adware. Trojans (the computer type… we find the other type in the lower stacks, not reference). I didn’t really care if I had to clean a naughty image off the computers once in awhile. It happens. It doesn’t offend me. Ticks me off that it’s a flagrant disregard of policy, but I’m not offended by the images. What irritated me was that the computers had to be cleaned on an almost daily basis of spyware and adware. It was so bad, they’d slow down to the point that they were just unusable. That frustrated everybody. When I first came on, our unfiltered terminal had so much keylogging software on it, rather than try to remove it, I had to reformat it. There was no other way. What made me very uneasy was that someone had booked a flight on that computer the night before I discovered the keylogger, using their credit card. Arg! That’s when we decided, for everyone’s protection, filters were required everywhere. They can be removed upon request.
With our Linux based computers, it’s a little less of a threat, but it still makes me uneasy. I think it should. I do worry about patron privacy. Because of this, I filter the computers.
In a perfect world, I wouldn’t have to filter the computers. I certainly don’t enjoy having people limited in any respect, but I feel also that the computers at the library should be used for certain things. Pornography isn’t one of them. You can go to the 7-11 or smokeshop down the street and get some magazines pretty cheaply. You can rent DVDs at the video store on the corner. Please leave the limited electronic resource we have at the library for people looking for jobs, doing reports, and emailing their families overseas.
Re:Saving the children? Save the computers!
I think with products like Deep Freeze and the various virus and firewall protection softwares out there that there’s no reason to filter adult computers… at least with software. I think librarians have an obligation to ‘set the tone’ in a public building and if they see someone viewing porn they should walk up to the person and tell them to close it. Most people get the rules pretty quickly.
Re:Saving the children? Save the computers!
Never got the opportunity to use Deep Freeze so I can’t make a judgement call on that, but people found ways around Fortress and Cooler. Actually, more often found a way around Fortress than Cooler. Cooler was pretty effective. I’ve yet to see Windows software that can fight every bit of spyware/adware out there (haven’t yet had a problem with the Linux deployment). Sure, Spybot did its thing, Adaware did its thing, and I ran the two with each other, sometimes with Microsoft’s Beta product as well. However, we still got adware and spyware on a regular basis… not porn related, because we had the filters, but usually gambling sites or shopping sites.
I guess what Greg says is true, though, about setting the tone. The problem is, librarians are ALL OVER THE PLACE about the issue. Some will say close the browser. Some, like me, will say, “That’s it for your computer time today. Move along.” And others, and I swear I have had a real live librarian say this to me this when discussing such issues, “I told him [the viewer], ‘There are children around, so if you wouldn’t mind coming back later to browse, that would be appreciated.'” Somehow I really don’t believe her library’s policy was to be a place to view porn. But enforcing policies can be sticky in the best of circumstances, and even stickier when the policy isn’t clearly written and laid down.
Re:Saving the children? Save the computers!
I wouldn’t say Deep Freeze is full proof but I don’t want to have to turn off the filter every time a person asks me too so its worth it for the low maintenance.
That’s all true but even if some of your coworkers approach it differently at least they approach it. And that helps a lot and sends at least the message that porn is frowned upon. Many librarians don’t at all and there’s a training video out there that actually advises librarians not to say anything. Those libraries get what they deserve.