Checking out your children: Pedophiles log on with libraries’ unwitting help

One From The Boston Herald says the average parent accustomed to seeing libraries as safe havens for children the arrest of a a sex offender underscored a chilling new reality.

“Computers are being used all the time to lure children,” said Gail Marcinkiewicz, spokeswoman for the FBI’s Boston office. “The reason predators use the library is so that what they’re doing can’t be traced back to their computers at home.”

Although there is no way of estimating how often pedophiles use library computers to contact children, a report published by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children found that at least one in five youngsters had been sexually solicited or approached via the Internet within the past year.

October 11, 2004 by Blake Uncategorized 7

Fang-Face says:

October 11, 2004 at 4:48 pm

Simplistic solution
All public computers in the U.S. should be unplugged from the internet, and such access through a public computer criminalized with severe penalties. By the rationales of the reactionaries, do that, and the problem will go away.

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nbruce says:

October 11, 2004 at 4:53 pm

Re:Simplistic solution
If only the Ohio woman I wrote about yesterday (raped a 4 year old and sent the pictures via e-mail to a man in Florida she wanted to impress) had used a library computer. Her nasty side would never have been found out.

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Eli says:

October 11, 2004 at 7:57 pm

Library Computer Use
We can make the same argument for national security issues as well. Suppose a terrorist wants to communicate and not have his home computer traced, the best place to go is the library. I think the real problem is the confidentiality issue and public library computers. There are no real guidelines regarding public library computer use. The INTERNET is not the same as a book. Privacy of one’s reading habits is a rights issue. The INTERNET is a communications device that reaches the entire world. Does a person using a library computer have the right to do as they please and communicate or plan however they want without limitation? This is an issue. Suppose a group operated a pirate radio station or television station. We would not question the principle that free speech protection gives them no right to do so. The INTERNET is a radio, television, short wave, etc. and needs to be viewed as such. I don’t know how to monitor it but our professional organizations should address the issue and make a policy that takes into account the enormity and dimension of the INTERNET.

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Anonymous says:

October 11, 2004 at 10:36 pm

Re: The INTERNET is a radio, television, short wav
ACK! No No No No. I’m not disagreeing with anything else you say here, except, the internet is NOT a radio, nor a television, nor a short wave radio, and it’s also, you’re right, a book, and it absolutly must NOT be viewed as such. The internet is impervious to analogy, I think.

Check out Understanding the internet: model, metaphor, and analogy.

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GregS* says:

October 11, 2004 at 10:41 pm

Re: The INTERNET is a radio, television, short wav
In terms of libraries I simply think of it as another reference book with poor indexing but outside of that I think of it as digitized 3 dimensional copy of the universe.

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Bibliofuture says:

October 11, 2004 at 10:58 pm

Re:Library Computer Use
The Internet is a communications device that reaches the entire world

I agree and when the Internet is used as a two-way communications device I don’t think you should have the same anonymity as when you RECIEVE one-way information at the library, from a book or from the Internet. Look at a web page you should be anonymous. Use the Internet as a two-way communication tool you should not be anonymous. How to implement this is the question that remains.

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Fang-Face says:

October 12, 2004 at 12:05 am

Internet analogy
The internet is a global library with the following collection development policy: Everything archived by anyone, anywhere, regardless of content, viewpoint, accuracy, or popularity.

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