Victory in San Jose (fwd)

[Dianne L Parham]

Mr. Burt is usually anxious to share all filtering news with this list 
serve, but I didn't notice this article published.  Please forgive if 
this is a repeat.  Forwarded from another list.  Dianne Parham, Grants 
Analyst, San Diego Public Library

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Date: Mon, 29-SEP-1997 08:30:22.62
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Subject: Victory in San Jose

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Who says there's no good news anymore?


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San Jose rejects library computer filters

Children Internet zones' an 8-3 loser in city  council vote

Published: Sept. 24, 1997

BY BARRY WITT
Mercury News Staff Writer

Software designed to block pornography on the World Wide Web will not be
installed on computers in San Jose libraries, the city council decided
Tuesday after a 90-minute debate that invoked comparisons to everything
from the iron grip of Communist China to the demented mind of Ted Bundy.

``I can't think of anything worse than government and politicians
getting into the role of censors,'' said Mayor Susan Hammer, as she led
an 8-3 vote to reject a proposal by Councilwoman Pat Dando to create
``children Internet zones'' in which the software filters would be
installed.

Dando argued that filters are necessary to keep kids from seeing obscene
material that courts clearly have declared to be illegal. To make her
point, she distributed to her council colleagues a printout of a Yahoo!
search that produced 219 Web addresses in response to a request for
sites with the words ``XXX Naked Pictures.''

Modifying an earlier proposal that would have prohibited children
younger than 18 from using Internet terminals without filters, Dando
said Tuesday she wanted children restricted to filtered machines unless
they had received permission from their parents to use unfiltered
computers.

But council members who voted in the majority said they supported the
library's policy of unfettered access to all materials for all San Jose
residents. They also indicated that the installation of filters might
amount to fixing a problem that doesn't really exist because people
generally don't look at pornography on library computer terminals that
purposely are located in open areas to discourage such use.

``I have not heard any evidence that we have problems in the library,''
said Councilman Frank Fiscalini.

City Librarian Jane Light told the council that she had received ``far
more calls from the media than from citizens or parents about this.''

San Jose has about 60 terminals with Internet access in its 18
libraries.

Light said that although the idea of keeping children from seeing
harmful material has merit, the installation of filters would put the
city on ``a slippery slope of censorship.'' She also argued that parents
alone have the right to determine what's appropriate for their children.

Filter opponents said software that blocks web addresses on a
site-by-site basis -- after the filter provider has reviewed the content
-- requires the provider to exercise judgment on what people should or
shouldn't see.

And, filters that block sites automatically based on whether they
include particular words can prevent access to valuable information --
on subjects such as safe sex or drug abuse -- while failing to block out
some pornographic sites.

Members of the city's library commission, which has only an advisory
role, came out in force against Dando's proposal.

The filtering proposal ``reminds me too much of Red China, where every
person who has an e-mail account has to register with the police,'' said
Polly Kam, a former library commissioner originally from Hong Kong.

``The latest trend in politics is to pass legislation to protect the
children,'' said Commissioner Stephen Ferree. ``All too often, this
results in removing the rights of the parent and the rights of the
child.''

On the other side, Beth Beebe, a parent of a three-year old, testified
that restricting children's access to pornography is much like keeping
them from buying alcohol or tobacco. She said pornography also is
addictive to those who sample it.

``There is a Ted Bundy. . . to show the extreme example,'' Beebe said,
referring to the Florida serial killer.

Members of a Gilroy parents group who are fighting to get the Santa
Clara County Library system to install filters also testified in support
of Dando's proposal and said they were prepared to mount a community
campaign to back an idea that to date has been pushed mostly by a single
politician.

Entirely absent from the debate in the self-proclaimed Capital of
Silicon Valley was input from the companies involved in the business of
the Internet -- whether producers of Internet hardware, filtering
software or World Wide Web content.

Dando was joined in her support for filters by Council members David
Pandori and Alice Woody.

Pandori said the city could ``set up a system that accommodates
everybody'' by allowing parents the opportunity to choose whether their
children could use filtered or unfiltered machines.

Light, the city librarian, said such a system would be difficult to
implement in a city as large as San Jose. She predicted most parents
wouldn't act one way or another, leaving it to the library to decide
whether children could or couldn't use unfiltered terminals.

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