Oro Valley Council gives its approval to filtering of Internet porn at library

Proponents of the filtering say it helps protect children from pornography. Opponents say it could potentially limit the public's right to information.

Library patrons will no longer have a choice between filtered and unfiltered access on the library's general-use computers, which are in the library's lobby.

Library staffers will have to be trained on procedures associated with the new policy before it can go into effect, said Library Administrator Mary Hartz-Musgrave.

She said she could not estimate how long that will take.

The Town Council voted 6-0 to approve the Internet-access policy for the library. Councilwoman Paula Abbott was absent.

Last week's decision followed a continuation of the Town Council's Nov. 15 discussion on filtering Internet access at the library.

Throughout the debate, Hartz-Musgrave has said the decision to filter all Internet access was up to the Town Council.

"Your library staff will do whatever it is directed to do," she said.

Six residents favor filtering

All six of the Oro Valley residents who spoke at last week's meeting were in favor of filtering Internet access for pornography.

"It is in your hands to protect my children," said Oro Valley resident Tim Keeland.

But opponents of filtering all Internet access for pornography said it gives people a false sense of security.

"There's no such thing as a perfect filter," said Alessandra Soler Meetze, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona. "Filters should not be a substitute for parental oversight."

At the November meeting, two residents spoke against filtering, saying it could limit the public's access to legitimate Web sites.

Under the new policy, library patrons will be able to go to library workers and request that a specific Web site be unblocked on a computer, which the staff will do on a per-use, site-by-site basis.

But having to ask library workers to unblock specific Web sites could deter people from asking for access even to legitimate Web sites about topics such as diseases, Soler Meetze said.

"This has tremendous implications for free speech, because it hinders people's ability to access info that is constitutionally protected," she said.

People who use the library's Wi-Fi network on their own computers will also have filtered Internet access, but library employees will not unblock Web sites for them.

Check for sex offenders

The Town Council also instructed library and Oro Valley Police Department employees to investigate what would need to be done to have library workers cross-check the names of people requesting that a site be unblocked with the Department of Public Safety's list of registered sex offenders.

They'll report their findings to the Town Council in three months.

Soler Meetze said checking patrons' names against the list of registered sex offenders makes the incorrect assumption that everyone who asks for a Web site to be unblocked is a potential sex offender.

The Oro Valley Public Library is an affiliate of the Pima County Public Library. Its status as an affiliate allows it to make some of its own policies and procedures.

The Pima County Public Library currently gives adult library patrons a choice between filtered and unfiltered Internet access.

The county's Internet Policy Committee completed its final recommendation on Internet filtering this month. It recommended to the Pima County Board of Supervisors that the library give patrons an informed choice between filtered and unfiltered access, said Library Director Nancy Ledeboer.

Each Internet session will start off filtered and patrons will be told what type of content the filter is targeting. Then the computer will give library users 18 and older the choice between filtered and unfiltered access.

Those who choose unfiltered access will then see a Web page that contains state laws on viewing pornographic Internet sites in the presence of children. After that point, they will have unfiltered access to the Internet, Ledeboer said.

The Phoenix Public Library filters all Internet access. The library gives users age 17 and older the choice between a basic filter that is meant to block only pornographic Web sites or an additional filter that also blocks Web sites considered inappropriate for children.