SCN: Filtering

[Steve]

x-no-archive: yes

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Voters Defeat Measure on Filters at Library  

by Keith Bradsher


Holland, MI (NY Times)---Voting on the nation's first ballot measure 
to shackle the Internet on library computers and keep children from 
being exposed to pornography, the people of this deeply 
conservative town have chosen not to force a public library to filter 
computer access to the Web.  

Conservatives had labeled the showdown as the "Lexington and 
Concord" of the struggle over American libraries' Internet policies, 
and Christian conservative groups outspent free-speech advocates 
by 14 to 1. But residents voted 55 percent to 45 percent against the 
proposal, which would have cut off municipal financing for the library 
here unless it blocked access from its computers to sites containing 
"obscene, sexually explicit or other material harmful to minors."  

The referendum was on the same ballot as the statewide Republican 
primary on Tuesday, and helped increase turnout to 41 percent of 
registered voters here, more than double the usual level in a 
primary.  

The vote here in southwestern Michigan, in what is sometimes 
known as Michigan's Bible Belt, comes at a time of mounting 
pressure on public libraries across the country to prevent patrons, 
particularly minors, from visiting Web sites featuring pornography 
and other material that many conservatives find objectionable. The 
American Library Association estimates that 15 percent of the 
nation's public libraries have already installed filtering software to 
prevent patrons from visiting various kinds of sites, especially 
pornographic ones.  

Proponents of filtering say that children could suffer permanent 
emotional scars if they stumble across an indecent site, even while 
supervised. "The librarians can't move fast enough to prevent that 
image from entering the child's mind and staying there forever," 
said Gary Glenn, the president of the American Family Association 
of Michigan, which sponsored the measure.  

Judith Krug, the director of the office for intellectual freedom at the 
American Library Association, said that psychological studies had 
shown that children were not so easily affected by sexual imagery. 
The association contends that Internet filters are a good tool for 
home computers but violate the First Amendment when they are 
used in libraries.  

Critics contend that filtering software can also block access even to 
some educational sites, and may create a false sense of security 
among parents and library administrators, because the software can 
sometimes be circumvented.  

Some voters here had an additional concern: children of families not 
affluent enough to afford home computers might suffer academically. 
"I really don't think it's a good idea because it's a disadvantage to 
the poor," said Mary Hunt, a 57-year-old homemaker who said as 
she left the polls at Holland's Civic Center on Tuesday evening that 
she had voted against the measure.  

Identifying herself as African-American and Native American, Ms. 
Hunt said that if the measure had passed, it would have been 
particularly harmful to this city's growing minority community.  

But sentiment was very different outside a polling place at one of 
this city's four Christian schools. Chris Ransom, a 28-year-old 
manager at a metal scrap recycling company, said that he had not 
connected his family's home computer to the Internet because of 
worries that his 11-year-old son, Justin, and 9-year-old daughter, 
Jessica, might see something inappropriate. He said he had 
cautioned both children about using the Internet at their friends' 
homes or at the library.  

His wife, Cyndi, who sat next to him in the family minivan after they 
had both voted for the ballot proposal, added that, "We warn them 
that you can get out there and you never know when you're going to 
get into" inappropriate sites.  

Holland, a city of 32,000, is not alone in wrestling with Internet 
issues here. Nearby Georgetown Township, which has 50,000 
people, has already installed filtering software on all computers in 
its public library, in defiance of a state law requiring that public 
libraries with Internet access have at least one computer without 
filtering software. Another city nearby, Hudsonville, turned off all 
Internet access from computers at its libraries here on Dec. 9, for 
fear of lawsuits by conservatives if filters are not installed and by 
First Amendment advocates if filters are installed. The vote against 
the Holland proposal was 4,379 to 3,626.  

The public library in Holland is a very large and beautiful building of 
limestone and glass that even features a cafe in the basement that 
serves cappuccino and omelettes. While the library's board has 
rejected Internet filters, the staff closely supervises use of the 
Internet.  

Computers in the children's area are not connected to the Web at all. 
Seven computers in the adult section with Web connections are on 
desks arranged in the shape of a horseshoe, and Karen Goorhous, 
the library's computer trainer, sits at the base of the horseshoe, 
where she can see what people are viewing. Computers with Internet 
access do not have drives for diskettes, to prevent users from 
downloading information, and files can be printed from the Internet 
only using a printer behind the reference librarians' desk.  

Ms. Goorhous said that only once had she found someone, an adult 
man, viewing clearly pornographic material, and she had told him to 
stop. But she said that some residents had also complained when 
other patrons used the Internet to visit sites that were not 
necessarily pornographic, like one that featured a photograph of 
Britney Spears, the teen-age pop singer.  

"Her navel was showing," Ms. Goorhous said.  

John R. Meengs, the president of the library's board, said that there 
had been no complaints that the library's existing oversight of 
Internet use might already be too restrictive.  

The ballot initiative here was led by Irvin Bos, a 59-year-old builder 
and manager of apartment buildings who said he had dedicated 
himself to fighting pornography because of an incident that occurred 
when he was 12 years old. He found a sexually explicit book by the 
roadside then and read it over and over again in the family's barn, 
Mr. Bos said in an interview today. When lightning struck the barn 
six months later, burning it down and killing the family's prize bull 
and best cow, Mr. Bos felt responsible.  

"I just knew I had caused that barn to burn down," Mr. Bos said.  

His ballot drive was bankrolled by the American Family Association. 
Mr. Glenn said that he hoped to discuss the issue with the library 
board. If filtering software is not installed -- and there is little sign 
that the board is changing its position -- the association will try 
again on the November ballot, he said.  

Copyright 2000 The New York Times Company  






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