Library board weighs computer filtering concerns

By: ERIKA AYN FINCH - For the North County Times | Thursday, January 15, 2004 11:28 PM PST ∞

ESCONDIDO ---- The Escondido Library board of trustees decided Thursday to meet with the City Council, probably next month, to discuss whether to install Internet filters on computers used by adults at the library.

The issue arose as the board considers whether to spend $2,570 to install equipment for wireless Internet access. Switching to wireless technology would mean deciding whether all or none of the library's 60 computers should have software that attempts to filter out all Web sites with sexually explicit content.

The issue came before the board just four days after Councilwoman Marie Waldron sent an e-mail to City Manager Clay Phillips, asking that the City Council discuss installing the filtering software on all library computers.

"As the Library Board of Trustees has failed to adequately address the filtering issue, I am requesting that it be placed on our next City Council agenda," Waldron wrote in an e-mail sent Monday.

By library policy, all 14 computers available to children and teenagers at the library have been installed with filtering software since 1996. Six computers used by adults also have software filters. Users must be 18 to use any of the 19 unfiltered adult computers and may be required to show proof of age, library officials said.

The filters are controversial because they block access to Web sites based on words, phrases and sexual content that might also prevent computer users from being able to read some medical or other Web sites.

"They aren't perfect by any means, but they do block out a lot of inappropriate content," Mark Becker, the city's director of information systems, told the board.

Deputy City Manager Jack Anderson attended the library board meeting and told trustees that some council members were concerned that not all of the library's computers are equipped with filters.

"I think a workshop with the City Council is a good idea because it will help develop a policy that works for both bodies," he said.

Internet filters in public libraries have been a hot issue since 2000, when Congress passed the Children's Internet Protection Act. The act requires public libraries to filter all computers with Internet access in order to receive certain federal funds, including Library Services and Technology Act funds for computers and Internet access.

The American Library Association challenged the law, contending it infringed on First Amendment rights. The Supreme Court ruled against the association in June 2003, saying that the law does not infringe on rights as long as filters could be disabled for research and other purposes.

The Escondido Public Library does not receive funds affected by CIPA, library officials said.

Still, the library is now faced with the question of filtering as it decides whether to switch to wireless Internet access.

Whereas wired Internet access allows select computers to be filtered, wireless access requires an all-or-nothing filtering approach.

In a report to the library board, library staffers recommended not using filters because "almost all of the current users of wireless are adults doing research, and because of the known difficulties with accessing Web sites through filtering programs."

Trustees had a mixed response to the report.

Some opposed filtering, while others said, they were unsure of the proper way to allow a free-flow of information and protect children at the same time.

"I don't think filtering belongs in our library," said trustee Virginia Abushanab. "It discriminates toward poor people without computers at home."

Abushanab said she conducted her own research on filtering software and learned that some software blocks job sites and health information. She said other software had political agendas.

But trustee Elmer Cameron cited concerns about users logging onto the library's Internet access outside the building. With wireless service, users could potentially access the Internet on the library's server around the library's perimeter and parking lot.

"I am concerned kids outside with laptops would be able to log on to sites that are not approved," Cameron said.

Jo Ann Greenberg, deputy city librarian, said the San Diego Public Library has used unfiltered wireless Internet for over a year.

"They have had no problem with the wireless," Greenberg said. "When people are looking at inappropriate material they treat that as a behavior. Security tells them it is inappropriate, but that is not used very often."

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