Online porn available in Toronto's public libraries

[spaminator]

Online porn available in Toronto's public libraries
By Don Peat, City Hall Bureau Chief
First posted: Thursday, November 19, 2015 04:47 PM EST | Updated: Friday, November 20, 2015 08:49 AM EST
TORONTO - Checking out online pornography in the Toronto Public Library should be out of circulation, the mayor says.
John Tory seemed shocked to learn Thursday that porn can be viewed on library computers.
“These are publicly financed computers in publicly financed buildings ... and publicly financed Internet access,” Tory said. “I found it hard to believe when I first heard about this this morning that our policies — meaning the library board and the city — would allow people to in any way, shape or form look at pornography on publicly financed computers paid for by the taxpayers with publicly financed Internet access.
“All I can say is I will look into it.”
Library officials confirmed they don’t slap Internet filters on computers available for adults to use in library branches.
“There is no perfect filter,” TPL communications manager Ana-Maria Critchley told the Toronto Sun. “But if staff have grounds to suspect that someone is watching illegal material such as child pornography, the same as if they’re suspecting anything else illegal going on at the library, (they) report it to the police right away.
But, Critchley pointed out, sexual imagery is not illegal.
“We’re the public library, we have to offer access to a very wide range of information, the widest range of information — whether it is online or in our books,” she said.
If someone in the library branches sees someone viewing something that is making them uncomfortable, they should talk to a staff member who are all trained in the library’s rules of conduct, Critchley said.
The library has more than 6.5 million annual uses on 1,800 computers with Internet access and there are very few incidents, she said.
“They will talk to the person and they will let them know that whatever they are viewing is making other people uncomfortable and generally people will turn it off,” Critchley said.
Online porn available in Toronto's public libraries | Toronto & GTA | News | Tor
studying hard at the library.

 

[Jinentonix]

Ummm...ok then. Well, I guess unless they're whacking it while watching, it's not really anyone's business. If what they're viewing is making someone uncomfortable, then maybe that someone should quit staring at the monitor. On the other hand, what kind of loser goes to the library to watch porn on their computers?


The idea that being offended by something is somehow a violation of your rights is starting to get way out of hand.

 

[spaminator]

Libraries: home of books and porn watching?
By Jenny Yuen, Toronto Sun
First posted: Saturday, October 07, 2017 05:17 PM EDT | Updated: Saturday, October 07, 2017 08:41 PM EDT
Viewing hard-core porn in a public library could almost be described as 50 shades of grey zone.
An Ottawa mother of two young girls — ages 11 and 13 — recently sparked the debate over whether patrons over 18 should be allowed to watch legal porn in public libraries after her daughters saw a man sitting on the main floor of the book depository viewing an adult sex site.
But then, the mom was disturbed to learn the Ottawa Public Library’s official position was that the man was within his rights to access legal pornography (i.e. not child porn), even in a high-traffic area and using one of the library’s computers.
The library said it’s “not in the business of censorship.”
And even though the majority of Toronto-area libraries say roughly the same thing, it doesn’t mean they will allow patrons to watch explicit sex videos out in the open if there are complaints.
“Only illegal content violates the internet use policy, such as child pornography,” said Toronto Public Library spokesman Ana-Maria Critchley. “However, if a library customer is viewing material that interferes with a welcoming environment (and pornography could fall into this category), staff are trained to investigate and take action, including asking the person to stop watching.”
At its 1,800 computers wired for internet access, there are more than 6.5 million annual computer users at the Toronto Public Library and “very few incidents,” according to Critchley.
The TPL’s internet use policy and rules state workstations are situated in public areas and “users are expected to use the internet in accordance with this environment.”
There are filters on children’s computers, but not adult workstations. That being said, they don’t rely on filtering a solution.
“Research consistently shows that filters remove valuable information — for example, information on breast cancer — and miss some content or images that should be filtered,” said Critchley. “Intellectual freedom is absolutely one of our key values, as it is for all public libraries.”
“We use a reasonable and balanced approach when applying our policies and rules, considering both the content being viewed and how it impacts those around,” she explained.
Some libraries — including those in Brampton and Richmond Hill — outright ban access to viewing porn while on premises.
In its Internet and Computer Use policy, Brampton Library said it is “prohibited to use the library’s internet access or computer equipment to receive or display sexually suggestive materials and text and/or graphics that are illegal, obscene or offensive or violate Canadian Copyright Laws.”
But internet policies at other libraries in the GTA are more vague.
In Oshawa, its library said it is “not responsible for determining that information is acceptable, reliable and suitable to customers’ needs.”
Markham Public Library provides access to both filtered and unfiltered stations that attempt to block sites containing sexually explicit or hate speech material, but emphasizes that “filtering software does not supplant the need for parental guidance.”
The Newmarket Public Library also doesn’t have filters on its Internet stations as it’s “a very expensive and inaccurate way of policing.”
“The Criminal Code has some prohibitions. We take a very broad interpretation of what obscenity means and we would absolutely ask anybody (to stop watching porn) if there was a complaint,” said library CEO Todd Kyle. “We absolutely would and absolutely have asked them not to look at what would be considered as pornography and we have the ability to cut off their access or ban them for a period of time.”
That being said, if someone was looking at porn discreetly in a corner of the library, but using their own cellular network and laptop from home and no one complained, then how would staff at any library know, really?
Toronto criminal lawyer Ari Goldkind said while he feels for the Ottawa mom whose kids were exposed to explicit images they probably weren’t ready to see, using the Criminal Code “as a sword for everything people don’t like or offends them” is problematic.
“If the person (watching porn) won’t leave the library or is putting up a fight with the librarian, that’s when they’re unreasonably interfering with the intended use of public property,” he said. “It’s not meant to be a 1970s Times Square pornographic theatre.”
But calling the cops, or trying to throw people in jail for looking at porn in a public place, will unnecessarily further clog up the Canadian justice system.
“If someone is in an open public library and it’s their only Internet connection and — for reasons that even I don’t understand — they are accessing legal materials in front of everyone else, until you tell me they’re in a child or teenager-only section, the three or five times a year this happens, isn’t worth the criminal law sweeping in and our overworked and overburdened police services responding to library offensiveness versus shootings that lead to the loss of life,” Goldkind added.
Canadian Civil Liberties Association spokesman Cara Zwibel said censoring intellectual content found online and viewed in a public library is concerning.
“There’s nothing inappropriate about asking for a more private space for people to view (porn),” she said. “It may create some uncomfortable and unpleasant situations, but the alternative, to me, is more problematic of getting librarians involved of determining what’s appropriate.”
jyuen@postmedia.com
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SCHOLAR SAYS PORN HAS VALUE TO OUR CULTURE
A University of Toronto Faculty of Information associate professor says there is cultural value in porn.
And porn can belong in a library — even within the space children also occupy.
“It’s a complicated issue and different libraries, not just in North America but the world, have approached it differently,” said Patrick Keilty, who has researched and studied internet pornography on an academic level.
“This isn’t a new issue,” he said. “This is something that libraries have grappled with over time. There’s ongoing discussions on how to deal with these issues.”
However, libraries tend to acknowledge intellectual value in pornography that detractors don’t see and don’t allow for.
“As a porn scholar, I tend to fall onto the side that pornography does have something to tell us about our culture, that it does sort of represent us to ourselves and so there is an intellectual argument to be made for it,” said Keilty.
But it’s important to note that libraries also sympathize with parents and members of the public who may not want to see — or hear — people bumping uglies, Keilty added, so they utilize measures such as privacy screens, filters on children’s computers, or even zoning how much space is intended for child audiences.
It’s also the parents’ responsibility to ensure their children are supervised as to not come across uncomfortable situations such as this, or be prepared to have discussions about “things that exist in the world” with their kids when they do.
“There is a real strong strand in the library world of coming down on the intellectual freedom world, but they often acknowledge the rights of parents to control what their children see and do,” he said.
“One of the things it can be hard for parents to understand is that libraries count as public space and that means that your child may encounter things there that they would encounter on the street or on the subway if someone looks at pornography on their phone.”
- Jenny Yuen
People in the Toronto libraries and elsewhere can view pornography in their computers on Friday October 6, 2017. Shown here at the Toronto Reference Library on Yonge St. (Michael Peake/Toronto Sun)

Libraries: home of books and porn watching? | Parents outraged, but is it within