Face the State

While Sex Sites Accessible, Patrons Allege Access to Legitimate Medical Sites Limited
Face the State Staff Report

DENVER – A Face the State investigation has revealed that despite screening software on public computers at Denver's central library, access to pornography can be gained in a matter of seconds through a simple internet search.

Earlier this week, a Face the State staff reporter investigated allegations surrounding alleged rampant porn use on the library's computers. In a matter of seconds, the reporter gained access to a wide range of sexually-explicit internet material from a randomly selected computer housed on the downtown building's fifth floor.

While library systems around the nation, including Denver's, employ screening software geared toward preventing access to porn, officials acknowledge that the technology is hardly fail-safe. The software can also prevent access to benign websites about medial matters or databases that deal with gay and lesbian issues. Library officials say the blocks are permanent on all computers in the child-only section. But the blocks are easily bypassed in the adult areas.

Face the State's investigating reporter did not attempt to bypass any software and gained access to adult Web sites simply by typing "porn" into the search function of Google.

According to library officials, the government is limited in its efforts to prevent access to such sites. “This is a very difficult, thorny and complicated issue that libraries all over the country face,” said Jo Haight Sarling, the library's director of collections and technology. "Pornography is legally protected speech.”

The issue of porn accessibility at Denver libraries came to light last week after a keen-eyed woman spotted three men surfing X-Rated sites at the downtown facility. The woman’s husband, Steven Sharp of Denver, created a firestorm last week when he penned a series of letters to local newspaper editors about the incident.

“If my wife could see what these men were looking at, then what stops a child from seeing the same thing?” Sharp asked in a Sept. 21. letter published in the Rocky Mountain News. “How far does our public library take this stance? Do we not have laws against public indecency? Where do we draw the line?” A similar letter appeared in The Denver Post the previous day.

Sharp’s letter drew 75 responses from Rocky readers (see this link for the full letter and online reaction.)

One responder wrote that the library’s software makes it impossible to view medical websites about breast cancer because “heaven forbid, there might be a picture of a breast.”

Another wrote: “What was shown in this pornography? Victoria’s Secret models? I want to know what her definition of pornography is.”

PRIVACY SCREENS AT $100 A POP

According to Sarling, library officals are also attempting to protect passersby from being subjected to graphic sites by outfitting computers with privacy screens. The library first used the screens last month to see how well they work and if they should be expanded. Thus far, 100 of the central library's 500 public computers contain them. Each screen cost about $100.

While the screens give the viewer privacy and prevent onlookers from spying, Sarling says there are drawbacks, including allegations that the screens make it hard to read material. Frustrated viewers have removed the screens and tossed them on the floor. In addition, anyone standing right behind the computer user can see everything, screen or no screen.

“It’s still not perfect,” Sarling said of the pilot program.

WHAT TO DO WHEN COMPLAINTS ARISE?

When complaints arise, library staff members can ask the computer user to move to a less public area or do their net surfing on a computer that has a screen. Sarling, meantime, warned parents that libraries are no longer the safe havens of the 1960s.

“People remember libraries from their childhood,” she said. “But today children are not safe anywhere. We live in a different world today. I would not leave my child alone in a library, grocery store or park. Parents need to guide their children through the library.”

Access to porn is a constant flashpoint at all libraries said Nanette Perez, deputy director of the Office for intellectual freedom for the Chicago-based American Library Association.

According to Perez, ALA and its member libraries seek to promote a "policy is that people ought to be able to access information without censorship or government interference." The ALA opposes the use of blocking or filtering software.

“We have a problem with filters,” Perez told Face the State. “They get in the way of getting to legitimate information that people want and need. Even with newer filters you can find absurd blocking that is based on partisan or religious viewpoints.”

As for those who come to the library to view porn, that’s a matter of human behavior, not government policy, Perez said.

“When you have the issue of people who view things that disturb others, some librarians will tap a person on the shoulder and ask them to move to a different area of the library,” she said.