Posted on 09/30/2009 11:30:29 AM PDT by JesmanVA
In one small Michigan town, another chapter is being written in a controversial library debate.
On September 23, nearly 300 Owosso, Mich. citizens crowded a local middle school to discuss whether or not filtering software should be placed on all Shiawassee District Library computers. The filters would prevent patrons from accessing "adult content."
(Excerpt) Read more at eeekonomy.com ...
The problem is you have to define it first. Playboy is porn to some people, and not to others.
Our Library says no adult sites but uses no filters if you get caught at these sites you loose the internet use at the Library. End of problem.
Firstly, I don’t believe people have a “right” to free internet access at libraries.
Fact is, public libraries have become a magnet for
undesirables and the porn/adult content is responsible for luring many in...
I agree with that approach. Simple and it works!
I’m a non-censorship radical. As long as children can’t get to them, sites like YouPorn (my wife and I actually enjoy it sometimes, she seems to get turned on by it and I don’t complain, and we learn somethings too) should be open in libraries. But maybe they should make an Adults Only computer room where children can’t walk up on someone viewing the sites.
Hugh Hefner would be turning over in his grace, right next to Marilyn’s, when he gets there.
if they can be in a seperate “adult” room.
i don’t care if they wanna view it, i just want to make sure some child can’t access it, or see it when walking by.
grave, not grace. Although I wonder how graceful he is. . .
Now, on the topic of whether my tax dollars ought to be used so that people in the library can receive free porn -- I have a hard time thinking that this is a fundamental right. If the library filters the stuff, the public can go elsewhere and have access. It's silly to say that the First Amendment establishes a right to free porn.
Our library does not filter it. SOOOOO.... I vote against every levy for them.
I was in the LA Public Library downtown in the science section, sat at a terminal and already up was some of the grossest porn I’ve ever seen. Even I was shocked.
A friend of mine is a librarian and she told me they have the same policy. The only problem, according to her, is that she is no longer a librarian but is now a 24/7 “shoulder-looker-over” as she is made to monitor what is on people’s screens.
Have only seen one fool get thrown out and the Police were threatened to be called if the person did not leave and shut their mouth. It was very foul and abusive to any one in hearing distance. The person is no longer allowed in the Libraries in the county.
Ours is done onscreen and all the computers screens face toward the computer desk.
Public libraries already censor adult content. No adult magazines or videos. No adult room in the back either. I’m no fan of censorship, wholeheartedly against it, but I wouldn’t want to drop my son off at a perv magnet. I guess it should be up to each individual branch. Some areas this would be a very bad idea. Others, not so much.
No
If porn in public is a right of free-speech, then one can argue sex in public as a right of free-speech. It becomes an ideology and not a concept based on supporting society. Free-speech is put in place to protect the intellectual growth of America; so that no government imposed monopoly be held firm.
Trivial things are offensive (but they are a just right); while sexual behavior in public isn’t trivial...it’s an imposition of a highly personal activity. If that became a normal thing, many people would become recluse and avoid it all. I think protecting offensive speech is important and allow these things to exist within certain settings is okay; but not everywhere and anywhere.
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