WEB4LIB digest 779

[Stacy Pober]

> At 05:51 AM 9/2/97 -0700, Diane Lewis wrote:
> >Thanks to Dan Lester for forwarding that chilling story to this list. 
> >I was particularly struck by the attitude of that parent who 
> >insisted that the Library not allow his son access to the Net without 
> >his parents' presence.  One would think a simple instruction to the 
> >son would have been sufficient.   
Ronnie Morgan said: 
> If most of you advocate "parents choice", why is this so "chilling"?  Was
> the father not making the choice in this case? 
> 
> One would think a simple instruction to the LIBRARY would have been
> sufficient.  

Sufficient HOW?  Is this kid so unique looking that every staffer 
knows him?  If the terminals are available for the public without a 
sign-in and verification of identity procedure, how will they pick 
out this particular kid.  And if they do, how does it become their 
business to kick this one off the Internet terminals, when this is a 
service offered to the rest of the patrons?   I mean, if a parent was 
strongly against their kid having access, perhaps they should come 
WITH the child to the library, where the parents could monitor the 
kid.  (I'm assuming that they have already instructed their child not 
to use the computers - if they don't trust him, then it seems to me 
that it's their business to supervise him directly.) 

To be honest, porn searching on the web is not a problem at our 
Internet terminals, and we're dealing with a college-aged population. 
Not that we don't see what we consider inappropriate use of the 
terminals, but this is mainly use for IRC Chat and game playing.  We 
have a policy that academic use takes precedence over recreational 
use, but many students are too polite to ask us to boot someone to 
free up a terminal, and if we're busy at the reference desk, we may 
not notice a problem.  

Back to the subject of children having  access to <gasp> EVERYTHING.  
I guess I fall somewhere in between the two extremes of "libraries 
should provide all patrons to access to everything through the 
Internet" and "Keep sexual material out of reach of all ages" groups. 
 I can see a use for filters in the Children's Room at a public 
library.  However, what's that magic age where you become an adult?  
Is it 18?  Most people are curious about sex before that, but who is 
to say when they should be allowed to access sexually explicit 
material?  And where are the lines between sexual material that is 
educational or erotic or pornographic?  Who gets to say?  I mean, the 
lingerie section of the Sears catalog used to be hot stuff in some 
areas.  Perhaps we should restrict all graphics use...oops, there go 
maps and charts and news photos. 

And another thing...do we let the most  heltered or sensitive people 
in a population decide what should be available in the rest of the 
library?   Not usually.  Then why would  we allow the needs of  those 
people decide what the rest of us should be allowed to see on the 
Internet? 

The difference between buying a particular magazine and having open 
access to the Internet is vast.  The Internet is simply an access 
medium, the way the telephone system is. As far as I know, we might 
put public phones in the library, but we don't monitor the phones to 
make sure people aren't making calls to sex lines or to discuss 
sexual matters.  We assume that where they call is NONE OF OUR 
BUSINESS.  And we provide phone directories and change for the phone. 
 That's a little closer to how I see the Internet access.  When you 
subscribe to a magazine, and put it on the public shelving for browse 
use, you do give it a bit of an endorsement and because of resource 
concerns, you want to choose wisely to get the greatest good from 
your spending.  However, it costs a library no more to give total 
access to the web than it does to give access to just the few sites 
that everyone can agree on.  

I can see why some parents are so upset.   The net has been demonized 
in the media as the source of all manner of evils.   But really, 
there is little that is really new on the net with regard to human 
misbehavior.   Again, as I see it, it's very like the phone:  you can 
use the phone to call your mom or your house of worship, or you can 
use it to plan a bombing or solicit sex.  It's not the phone that's 
causing the crime.  

Hmm, I suppose that the argument could be made that the Amish have 
kept to such strict behavior standards over the years simply because 
of lack of electricity and telephones....

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Stacy Pober                   Internet: spober at manvax.cc.manhattan.edu
Information Alchemist         http://www.manhattan.edu/library/mclmenu.html
Manhattan College Libraries   Phone:  718-862-7980
Riverdale, NY 10471           Fax:  718-862-7995
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