By David Burt*

July 1999 – The problem of children and adults accessing pornography in public libraries is far worse than organizations such as the American Library Association (ALA) have led Americans to believe. I know, because with a team of five other child protection activists I spent three months researching the problem and preparing a report. That report, entitled “Dangerous Access,” was released at a Washington, D.C., press conference March 2, 1999. It documents 503 incidents of patrons accessing pornography in public libraries, including 195 incidents involving children, average age 12.

The ALA, however, denies that a problem exists. ALA President Ann Symons recently said, “The whole issue of protecting children has been blown way out of proportion by the media and those who seek to promote their own agendas.”

The official policy of the ALA is that children have the right to access pornography. The group’s primary recommendation to libraries has been that they install privacy screens to prevent others from seeing what patrons are viewing.

Libraries grant access to porn, but not its own records
Securing information for our report wasn’t easy. We filed Freedom of Information Requests to public libraries (613 libraries in all 50 states) asking for “copies of any patron and staff complaints about patrons accessing pornographic material on public Internet terminals.” Our requests were ignored by 293 of the libraries, and 15 libraries refused outright to provide records they possessed. Most that refused cited “patron confidentiality” as their reason. We appealed the refusal of the San Antonio Public Library to the Texas Attorney General, who ordered the library to redact any personal names and release the information.

The American Family Association Center for Law and Policy took up our cause, and persuaded The Denver Public Library and the Indianapolis Public Library to release their records. The real reasons for the refusals became clear: there were many incidents involving exposure of pornography to young children.

There were 20 incidents of adults accessing child pornography in public libraries. In most cases library policies of destroying electronic and paper records of patron Internet activity make it almost impossible for law enforcement to catch pedophiles using public library to download child porn. At the Multnomah County (Oregon) Public Library and the Los Angeles (California) Public Library, pedophiles took advantage of such policies to run child porn businesses using library computers.

Most disturbing was that law enforcement officials were notified in only two of the 20 incidents in which library staff had witnessed the commission of a felony. In one of those two instances, the American Civil Liberties Union expressed concern about the violation of the pedophile’s privacy.

In two highly disturbing incidents, teenage boys who were habitual pornography users attempted to molest younger children at the library. An incident at the Phoenix (Arizona) Public Library is described in a Phoenix Police Department Report. The officer responded to a report of “attempted sexual conduct with a minor,” after a 13-year-old boy asked a four-year-old boy inside the library bathroom if he was willing to give him a quarter in exchange for a sex act.

A police interview with the accused perpetrator revealed that he accessed pornography “almost every day” at the library and went into the restroom and masturbated.

Freedom without responsibility
Unfiltered, unmonitored access to pornography in public libraries poses a clear and present danger not only to our children, but also to our communities.

Pornographers are actually using library pornography to attack the very foundation of community standards. In Phoenix, Arizona, a pornographer pleaded he should not be prosecuted under the state’s “harmful to minors” law because the material he makes available to children was no worse than what children could view via the Internet at the Phoenix Public Library.

Fortunately, concerned citizens are taking action. After these and other incidents the people of Arizona decided enough was enough. Thanks in no small way to the efforts of the pro-family group the Center for Arizona Policy (CAP), the Arizona legislature overcame fierce opposition by state chapters of the ALA and ACLU to pass a law requiring public libraries to protect children from pornographic material. CAP’s Len Munsil cited “Dangerous Access” as being of tremendous assistance.

Radio talk show host Dr. Laura Schlessinger has made the issue a personal crusade, and has regularly been critical of the American Library Association. As a result, Toys R Us, a national Toy retailer, cancelled nearly $1,000,000 in donations to ALA. 

What you can do:
➤ Investigate your local public library. Ask them if they require children to use filters, and if they monitor children’s use of the Internet.
➤ Organize others and go to your library board and demand that your library protect children.
➤ Contact your state legislators about getting a law passed like the one in Arizona, that requires public libraries to protect children.  

* David Burt is a practicing librarian and president and founder of Filtering Facts, a non-profit organization that works to protect children from the harmful effects of pornography by promoting the use of filtering software in libraries.

Filtering Facts
phone/fax 503-635-7048
210 S. State Street, Suite 7
Lake Oswego, OR 97034