The Internet, with its unlimited access to any kind of information, poses some complex questions that challenge liberal and conservative alike, the most staunch defenders of the First Amendment and the most ardent exponents of censorship.
Last week’s protest at the Los Altos Main Library by K.I.D.S. (Keep the Internet Decent and Safe) brought the complex issue of Internet censorship to the forefront in our community. The group, comprising mostly concerned parents, wants the county library system to block pornography on the Internet. Librarians refuse, arguing that such action is censorship and violates their principles of unrestricted information access.
With the rush by President Clinton to make the Internet accessible to every U.S. student, the problem extends far beyond the libraries into schools, too.
This problem has no easy solution. First, let’s assume pornography is a bad thing, encouraging deviant behavior and a disrespect toward women in general. How does one block access to pornographic home pages without affecting other information? Will such subjects as “breast cancer” be censored as well because “breast” can be linked to pornography?
We know it is probably impossible to block “key words” that search engines use to seek information for the above reason. But the blatantly pornographic URL (universal resource locater) addresses could be blocked.
On the other hand, do we merely shrug and say, “Oh well, if pornography is accessible at the library or school, so be it?” Isn’t it the responsibility of parents to guide their children? Of course. It is parents who pay taxes to support schools and libraries. It is parents who elect school boards and county supervisors to hire teachers and librarians. Which is exactly why parents have a right to participate in decisions about what their kids see and read.
Strangely enough, our public libraries and schools are already in the censorship business. Standards have been set with the choice of printed materials – for instance, no Hustler magazines are on display to our knowledge. Is the Internet any different?
A U.S. Supreme Court decision recently defended free access on the Internet, and a lengthy preamble defending the library’s position can be found on Los Altos Main Library terminals. The prevailing argument is that the importance of freedom of information outweighs the importance of censoring pornography.
There are no easy answers. Whether we can selectively block inappropriate home pages, similar to the same selectivity schools and libraries have in choosing print materials, remains to be seen. Meanwhile, parents do have a right to know and should be aware of what happens to their kids when they cross the threshold into a library or a school.
