Cyberfiltering

[Dianne L Parham]

Many libraries, including mine, have separate children's and adults 
computers.  But here is the question I pose....who decides when a child 
becomes an adult?  I can't visualize overworked staff checking I.D.'s.  
My mother thought I was mature enough to read adult books when I was 12, 
and had the same attitude toward movies and television and anything else 
I wanted to explore.  Other mothers would be reluctant to let "children" 
of 18 see the same materials.  If the parents aren't in the library 
observing, do you really expect staff to keep a giant file of each 
individual to decide who may or may not use which computer, or what each 
individual should view?  I personally think all this grown-up blathering 
is probably making children more curious to view sites that would 
otherwise bore the heck out of them.  There is nothing like making 
something forbidden to make it very attractive indeed.  Dianne Parham, 
San Diego Public Library, dzp at library.sannet.gov

On Wed, 30 Apr 1997 Carolyn_Gonzalez at medcom1.smtplink.amedd.army.mil wrote:

>      All Concerned:
> 
>      I stopped following the cyberfiltering discussion when people started
>      getting nasty with each other.  I'm not a public librarian, so the
>      issue isn't directly related to my worklife.
> 
>      I fell into a discussion of cyberfilters and public libraries with one
>      of my co-workers, a webmaster, when this idea hit me.
> 
>      Maybe libraries should have two computer banks--one for juveniles and
>      one for adults.  The juvenile bank could be filtered or on an
>      intranet, while the computer bank designated for adults could have
>      unrestricted internet access.
> 
>      Has anyone come up with this idea yet, or put it to use yet?
> 
>      Thanks,
> 
>      Carolyn Ellis Gonzalez
> 
>