Anonymous Patron writes “Here’s A Follow Up on that library in Oklahoma where law enforcement officers had asked the library board to consider some restrictions on computers because of evidence the computers have been used by sexual predators to contact children.
Library patrons will continue to have access to the Internet and e-mail under new guidelines approved Monday.
City Attorney Carol Lahman spoke to the board Monday, saying the new policy would meet the board’s reluctance at more severe proposed steps and also would meet approval of Enid Police Department officials.
Police Chief Rick West also spoke, saying the police department is not concerned with censorship but is concerned about protecting Enid youths.”
That’s okay…
The police have to be concerned about children’s safety – it’s part of their job. However, it’s part of a librarian’s job to make sure that all patrons have fair and equal access to information. Preventing access to email is not the answer. Try again, Oklahoma.
Re:That’s okay…
That was the point of the story–they will have access to email, but not chat or IM. It looks like they now have a fairly standard access policy. My guess is that they saw they’d have a legal fight on their hands, in addition to losing a lot of goodwill with such a restrictive policy.
Re:That’s okay…
Somewhat OT, but:
Consider the fact that in about 90 percent of molestation cases, the perp is a family member or friend of the family. If the good officer really wants to protect the town’s children, perhaps a public education campaign for children is in order.