children accessing porn; adults turning off filterware (was Re: Selection)

[Shirl Kennedy]

Okay.  I'll bite.  In our house, we allow free and unfettered acess to the
Net.  My teenage son has looked at porn on the Net.  If he were spending 12
hours a day locked in his room gazing at the screen, I would concede that
we have a problem.  I don't consider that satisfying his curiousity this
way is a problem.  Yes, he found his way to http://www.farmsex.com.  He
also brought it to our attention, and we had a rather interesting
discussion about people, their unusual sexual preferences, and the
proclivity of folks to utilize "new" technology for sexual gratification --
to wit, Polaroid cameras and camcorders.  We also talked about why "porn"
sites are so popular -- because it allows those who are curious/interested
to partake in the privacy of their own homes, without having to enter
sleazy XXX-type establishments in less-than-desirable areas of town. 

Maybe we're just lucky.  Or maybe we've tried hard to create the type of
home environment in which such things are discussed freely.  At any rate,
my point is that "filtering" the Internet in public libraries boils down to
an imposition of someone else's values/tastes/morality/whatever on my
children and my family.  We recently went through a flap here about loaning
R-rated videos to minors.  And I was the one who stood up at the library
board meeting and "confessed" that my son owned a copy of Pulp
Fiction...and that it was purchased for him by his grandmother!

Of course, since I'm currently working as a special librarian, I realize I
have the luxury of speaking as someone who does not work in a public
library that is subject to political/community pressures.  In our local
branch, the Internet computers are near the reference desk, and patrons
sign up for half an hour access at a time.  These factors alone serve to
dissuade egregious "smut surfing" without having to resort to some
half-baked "technological" solution.

But as a librarian, a journalist *and* a mother, I would feel
intellectually dishonest defending filtering since it's against everything
I've tried to convey to my children as a First Amendment absolutist who
fears the so-called "slippery slope."  

I'm sure that there are people in your own communities who feel exactly the
way I do.

Shirl Kennedy
Technical Information Specialist
Internet columnist
Author
Gadfly...
and Mom


At 04:57 PM 7/7/97 -0700, earl young wrote:
>I am interested in the arguments in favor of a child's right to or
>access to pornography.  I believe it would indeed be at least as "on
>point" as the "many technical and other philosophical problems" you
>referenced.  In fact, a convincing case for their access would render
>the rest of the issues moot.  What are the arguments in favor?
>