Pornography in our Children's Libraries      4/15/1998

School reports that require a trip to the library for research may now need parental monitoring. The Loudoun County (VA) library is attempting to block pornography sites so that young children and even adults won't be able to access smut on library time. However, in an effort to keep pornography accessable to patrons of the public library the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has filed suit claiming the new regulations violate the First Amendment -—freedom of speech.

Delegate Richard Black, a member of the Loudoun County library board is the defendant named in the suit. Apparently, he wasn't surprised when U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema ruled on April 7, 1998 ”the library board's policy of using X-Stop blocking software might constitute inappropriate government censorship“ (Washington Times, 4/9/98). In February, the judge ruled on another pornographic issue and concluded that Virginia state employees can view pornography on the Internet while at work. Any prevention of use would be unconstitutional.

We should be praising the local libraries like Loudoun County that are willing to protect your children when they are studying or researching at the local library. Dixie Sanner, a Loudoun resident who supports the board's policy stated, ”We are not going to stop fighting to protect our kids and our community“ (Washington Times, 4/9/98).

The truth is that pornography doesn't affect Loudoun county alone. It affects everyone everywhere. ”Congress is considering legislation to require all libraries that receive Federal money for Internet connections to install some form of blocking or filtering software to protect children“ (New York Times, 4/9/98).

Truly, the mind set in our country has changed. Since ”over 30% of sites on the World Wide Web are pornographic“ (USA Today, 4/8/98) children have a high probability of finding pornographic sites, even accidentally. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) sponsored a bill that ”would require all schools and libraries nationwide to adopt some form of filtering or blocking technology in order to qualify for the “e-rate,” a federally mandated discount on telephone time“ (Washington Post, 4/10/98). Call 1-800-962-3524 1-800-504-0031 or write a personal e-mail to your representative and urge them to support John McCain's bill, S. 1619. We must fight for integrity!

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