[SF] Library installs privacy screens so patrons can continue looking at PORN on public computers

Daily Mail ^ | July 25, 2012 | mail reporter

[kevcol]

The San Francisco Public Library has installed 18 privacy screens on its public computers so patrons continuing looking at online porn in the library without disturbing the people around them.

The library refuses to install internet filters, but families have begun complaining that children can see sexually explicit content when they use public computers.

At least one group is outraged that the library continues to allow people to use public facilities to look at hardcore pornography and has accommodated them -- instead of driving them out.

[kevcol]

"The main branch of the San Francisco Public Library, where hundreds of homeless people spend every day, is the first in the country to keep a full-time social worker on hand, according to the American Library Association." LINK


I need some help here ma'am! push me in
front a computer and pull up a porn site please.

[SamAdams76]

Doesn't look like much reading is getting done in that library.

I used to be a big booster of public libraries but unfortunately they are turning into hang-outs for dirty, smelly homeless people. Most of the people I see in my own library are just there to get DVD movies and CDs that they can rip at home. I think it's time to scan all the books into electronic format, put them online and shut the libraries down.

[Iron Munro]

[American in Israel]

There is no magic box that you throw a switch and the porn goes away.

Thats called morality.

[PGR88]

I read the headline, and without going any further, I thought: “Must be San Francisco.”

Bingo! 10 points for me.

[SMARTY]

It’s why I vote NO to every request to raise our taxes for ‘Libraries’

[GSWarrior]

The public restrooms on the main floor of the SF Library are pretty much places where the homeless bathe. At least it used to be. Don’t know what it’s like now.

[Malone LaVeigh]

[wrench]

>>There is no magic box that you throw a switch and the porn goes away.<<

Don’t know much about routers and firewalls.......

Actually, you are correct, there is no switch, it is done via the “enter” key.

[TurboZamboni]

Same way in St.Paul.

the downtown library is in close proximity to parks where drunks like to hang out.

[Mich Patriot]

(from the story) "We're always looking for any kind of elegant solution that strikes a balance between the right to privacy and folks that want to use the library for any other intended purpose,' city librarian Luis Herrera told the TV station."

How much "right to privacy" should one expect in a taxpayer funded PUBLIC library?

How does allowing people to view porn in the public library classify as "elegant"?

[SaraJohnson]

If libraries are made unsafe and unwelcoming for the people who pay the taxes to keep them open, sell them off. It is an expensive gathering place for perverts.

A pervert tried to show my son porn in our local library in Mass. when we lived there. I organized to torpedo their rennovation funding request. You don’t need anything fancy for the local peep show. A lot of people had stopped using the library because they had been bothered by perverts who go there to look at porn. The librarians thought they were so cutting edge, hawt and sassy until their money dried up.

[kevcol]

A pervert tried to show my son porn in our local library in Mass. when we lived there. I organized to torpedo their rennovation funding request

Nice job Sara! I'm sure your efforts are appreciated by the majority of Americans who still have moral/spiritual compass. We can make a difference on a local level and this is a perfect example.