http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/03/10309475-aclu-sues-library-for-not-allowing-access-to-online-porn[begin copied text]
The American Civil Liberties Union is suing a Washington state library district for not offering access to online porn, Seattle's King 5 TV reports.
When a user logs on to a computer at the Wenatchee public library, for example, and types "porn" into the search engine, the list of results will appear as if porn doesn't exist, according to King 5.
The search censorship by the North Central Regional Library also means some websites -- such as Google Images and YouTube -- are blocked too. The board decided the filter serves its mission to promote reading and lifelong learning.
advertisement"We believe having pornography in public places hurts our ability to accomplish our mission," Dan Howard, director of public services, told King 5.
The district won the case in the state Supreme Court two years ago, but the case is now pending in a federal court.
"We are a publicly funded institution," Director Dean Marney said in a statement published on the district website. " It is crazy to think that we should be required to use tax dollars to allow open access to Internet pornography or to become illegal casinos."
The ACLU is representing three library users and a nonprofit organization, and argues that federally funded libraries should disable their filters upon the request of an adult.
“This case is about an overly broad filtering policy that has restricted an adult student from using the Internet for a class assignment and a professional photographer from accessing art galleries online,” ACLU cooperating attorney Duncan Manville said in a statement.
The North Central Regional Library district, which is the largest in the state and represents 28 libraries in the central part of Washington, admits its policy puts it in the minority among the state's libraries.
For example, despite repeated complaints from women about men watching porn in full view of their children, the Seattle Public Library held fast to its policy of unrestricted online access for adults, according to the Seattle Post Intelligencer.
The paper says the King County Library System has a similar policy: it only filters kids' access on computers. The American Library Association endorses the same stance.
"Sometimes, in a library, you're going to see information that's going to make you uncomfortable," Barbara Jones, director of the association's intellectual freedom office, told radio station KUOW Wednesday.
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Sorry, don't really know the etiquette for copy/paste jobs...
I'm all for Freedom of Speech...but what's to stop kids from watching what the adults are?
Thoughts anyone?
