To Filter or Not to Filter: The Role of Public Librarians in Determining Internet Access
Freedom of speech is a very important topic, but is it more important than the safety of our children? In my opinion libraries should attempt some sort of filtering. We filter the Internet in schools to protect children, why should it be any different at a public library? The filtering software can't catch everything, but at least the information would not be as readily available to our children.
The second option of filtering certain computers and not others; having a bar code determine if you are allowed to be on an unfiltered computer; or even privacy screens will not keep students from the information. If librarians have to monitor Internet use, what happens when they get busy, or just decide it's too much work to monitor everyone?
2 comments:
I agree that freedom of speech is important to the liberties that we enjoy here in the U.S., but we have to consider children differently. Any Political Science course will tell you that children do not have the same freedoms and rights as adults. Boy that sounds bad don’t it, but it is not bad at all. We, as a society want to protect our children and exercise authority over them to nurture them, protect them, and educate them. We do this in the hopes that as adults they will use their freedoms responsibly and safely. It is ignorant to say that children should have access to, and view, it all because of the freedom of speech language in the Bill of Rights. I do want to add though, that when it comes to the internet filtering it is problematic. If you put on filters it really does take out some of the useful sites and fails to filter out some of the most dangerous ones. What happens is filters give a false sense of security and make us less diligent in monitoring and being involved. We need to be involved and guide and educate our kids in internet safety. I agree that we should protect our children but we need to do so in a pragmatic way.
I also agree that freedom of speech is important. However,the freedoms we as adults have do not compare to the freedoms that children have. Filtering is a great idea, but I agree with Jonathan that some filters take out some of the useful sites and information.
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