PORNOGRAPHERS USE LIBRARY TO ATTACK COMMUNITY STANDARDS

[Filtering Facts]

PORNOGRAPHERS USE LIBRARY TO ATTACK COMMUNITY STANDARDS
http://www.filteringfacts.org/arizona.htm

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, July 13, 1998

Contact: David Burt
David_Burt at filteringfacts.org
503 635-7048

Lake Oswego, Or --- Can unfiltered Internet access at your local public
library really pose a threat to your community's ability to protect children
from pornography? The pornographers think so, according to a legal motion
filed in Phoenix, Arizona pleading that the material they were making
available to children was no worse that what children could view via the
Internet at the Phoenix Public Library.

The anti-pornography group Enough is Enough has been warning communities of
just this possibility. A recent EIE thought piece titled "A Trojan Horse in
the Local Library?" made the following prediction:

"Astoundingly, some libraries have become the Trojan Horse to bring
hard-core pornography into their communities. There is scarcely a public
library in the country whose selection policy would extend to a Hustler
magazine or a Deep Throat video. But many libraries are hooking up to
unfiltered Internet access that brings in illegal obscenity and child
pornography."

"That Trojan Horse is the very real threat of the erosion of community
standards and harmful to minors laws until they are meaningless", says David
Burt, President of Filtering Facts. 

The publisher of a pornographic Arizona tabloid called the Beat was recently
arrested for distributing his tabloid in sidewalk vending machines where
they could be accessed by minors. He offered as his defense in a motion to
dismiss the case that the Phoenix Public Library "has materials available
for minors which are infinitely more graphic than Defendant's newspaper."
The defendant,
Beat publisher Jerry Evans, has even bragged that "all the porno lawyers are
supporting me". 

Burt offered this advice, "Communities need to be aware, as 'all the porno
lawyers' are, that if they allow their local libraries to offer free access
to obscenity and pornography, they are putting their ability to restrict
sexually oriented businesses, and their children's health, at risk."

 

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David Burt	President, Filtering Facts
Website: 	http://www.filteringfacts.org
E-Mail:  	David_Burt at filteringfacts.org
Phone/Fax:	503 635-7048