6 City Libraries to Test Internet Porn Blocking

Responding to concerns about minors seeing pornography on the Internet, Los Angeles libraries will block access to adult sites from some computer terminals in children’s areas, officials said Wednesday.

Librarian Susan Kent briefed a City Council panel on the 90-day trial program at six branch libraries. The program involves both dedicated computers and a disclosure to parents that their children may use other library computers to gain access to the wider Internet, which includes adult-oriented Web sites.

“We’re trying to be responsive to council concerns about the usage of the Internet,” Kent said.

The test program was endorsed by Councilmen Mike Feuer and Rudy Svorinich Jr. during a hearing Wednesday by the council’s Arts, Health and Humanities Committee.

“I think it’s a good first step,” Feuer said. “I want to see what happens in practice as we try this before I want to vote on a citywide policy.”

Feuer said one concern is that children using the dedicated computers will be blocked from access to some sites that may be appropriate, such as a site on sex education.

“I do not support the idea of precluding a fifth-grader from looking up sex education, but these things do that,” Feuer said. He said the test program will still allow minors access to other library terminals with unlimited access to the Internet.

The possibility that children could unwittingly find themselves exposed to pornographic Web sites has infuriated Svorinich, who asked Kent in 1997 to look at the feasibility of blocking or filtering software.

Svorinich favored warning parents on application forms for children’s library cards that unlimited access to the Internet on many of the library system’s 600 computers is provided.

The city is operating in a new area, according to UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh, who teaches a class in free speech law. The courts have not clearly defined what is permissible, but Volokh said it appears any program that blocks all access to certain Web sites would be found unconstitutional.

But Volokh said he believes the courts might uphold restrictions on access by children while maintaining unlimited access by adults.

“Courts have recognized that it is permissible to shield children from certain sexually explicit material as long as there is no such burden on adults,” Volokh said.

Minors now may use any public computer in the city library system. They are, however, greeted with a message advising on the availability of child-oriented Internet search engines, including Yahooligans and Jeeves for Kids.

These search engines direct users to child-friendly Web sites and do block some adult sites, Kent said. Children, however, may use other search engines that do provide access to adult-oriented Web sites.

The city attorney’s office has warned the City Council that blocking all adult-oriented Web sites on all library computers would not be permissible because it limits the public’s access to the free flow of information.

Kent also said she does not want to restrict access of library patrons to the Internet.

“Full access to the Internet for everyone is the policy in 80% of the libraries” nationally, she said.

The proposed pilot program would dedicate some computers that would default to children’s search engines. Librarians would help guide children to those search engines, but would not prevent children from choosing normal search engines, including Alta Vista and Excite.

Putting filters on all computers would unreasonably limit the access of children to Web sites that they should have access, according to Elizabeth Schroeder, associate director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California.

Web sites on gay and lesbian issues, AIDs and sexually transmitted diseases may be filtered out, but could be important for children, Schroeder said.

The ACLU has also opposed requiring written parental consent, Schroeder said.