Boy finds porn in library restroom

8-year-old Jason Goldsberry went to use the downstairs men’s room at the Council Bluffs Public Library.

“My son came upstairs and had a shocked, unbelievable look on his face like something was wrong,” his dad said. “He said he had a problem, that there were papers laying on the floor with naked people on them and stuff.”

In her first week as the new library director, Barbara Peterson has found herself in the middle of a long-running local as well as national debate over filters.

Full Story

March 5, 2004 by Blake Uncategorized 8

shoe says:

March 5, 2004 at 7:10 pm

Poor Ms. Peterson

That’s a hell of a thing to get thrown into your first week. Ouch.

I will be interested to see how this unfolds. I guess what I’m coming to realize in reading these filtering stories (and the comments) is that you’re just not going to make everyone happy… including yourself.

Whatever decision Peterson reaches, either by herself or by public pressure, she’s likely not going to be 100% pleased with it. It’s the imperfect nature of filters, I guess, that contributes to this.

I don’t doubt that just about anyone you talk to would say that what the little boy found in the restroom is not appropriate in a public library. But the implications of filters need to be weighed carefully. Librarians realize this. Unfortunately, the public doesn’t always. I just hope that they really can make the best possible decision for all parties involved.

Reply
Anonymous Patron says:

March 5, 2004 at 7:54 pm

Something to be considered…
In these times, perhaps some advocate of filtering planted said publication…”See! There IS pornography in the library!”…
Of course, the demand for filtering will increase in light of the cesspool of depravity known as
“The Internet”…You can’t tell these days.

Reply
mcbride says:

March 5, 2004 at 10:00 pm

Reminds me of my first…
Okay, I’ll come clean. First Playboy I saw was under the bridge at the railroad tracks on Waukegan Road in Northbrook, IL. A few homeless guys lived there, and they’d leave their magazines under some logs near their campfire.

The point is, you can’t blame the library for what people leave behind. If someone left religious pamphlets in the restroom, someone would be yelling about that too.

Reply
Anonymous Patron says:

March 5, 2004 at 10:21 pm

Re:Something to be considered…
You’re probably the kind of person who believes that Bush staged the 9-11 attacks. What a troll…

Reply
Anonymous Patron says:

March 5, 2004 at 11:44 pm

Re:Something to be considered…
Are you saying he DIDN’T??????

Reply
Steffers says:

March 6, 2004 at 12:12 am

Re:Reminds me of my first…
Very true. At one the branch libraries here, we had a patron who would print off various types of porn (stories and pictures), leave them on the printer or desks for the staff to pick, and he’d watch their reactions. And who is to say that these particular items came from a library printer? To a certain extent we can control the flow of inappropriate materials coming in through our pcs but we can’t control what our users bring in their pockets. If someone decides to bring porn from home, we can’t do much about it unless we catch them looking at it.
No one will be completely satisfied here, gonna have to give a little and take a little. It will be very interesting to see how this shakes out.

Reply
keltd813 says:

March 6, 2004 at 1:26 am

porn in the library
Wow. What a way to start a new job.
Did you read the comment left on the story’s web site? I have to agree with the author. While I live in a different part of the country, I would not send my 8 year old to the bathroom in a public place on his own – especially one on another floor of the building.
Another point to make is that porn isn’t just available on the internet – while in this case it was, papers and magazines can be carried in from outside. How do you protect your child from that? Filtering library computers (which doesn’t work 100% anyway) has no impact on the publishers of magazines.
Keep your children close and be observant at all times.

Reply
ChuckB says:

March 6, 2004 at 2:19 am

Re:Something to be considered…

Based on my experience in public libraries, I find the obvious explanation much more plausible.

Anonymous Patron: It’s a simple matter to float speculations about whose interest such an occurrence serves, without putting forward a shred of evidence. We all know that such talk can be used to spin and shim discourse. And we have to ask: whose interest does such speculation serve?

Reply