ACLU rips library district for filtering kids’ computers

Jace Radke

Friday, Feb. 9, 2001 | 10:12 a.m.

The American Civil Liberties Union is criticizing the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District's policy of filtering the Internet in children's libraries.

Allen Lichtenstein, attorney for the ACLU of Nevada, said at a public hearing Thursday night that the library board's policy of not allowing children under the age of 18 to use non-filtered Internet computers seems backwards.

"We are very much in favor of giving parents a choice, but the board seems to have it backwards to have the restrictions in place unless the parents give written access," Lichtenstein said, during the hearing at the Sunrise Library, 5400 Harris Avenue. "Have the norm be complete access as with other library materials."

The board voted 8-1 in September to install a filtering system on its internet-ready computers in its children's area. The filtering program is only on the computers in the children's areas and blocks access to materials that would not be carried in the library as a whole, or materials that wouldn't be put in the children's area, District Deputy Director Nancy Ledeboer said.

"Without the filtering a child under 18 needed a parents permission to use a computer with the Internet on it," Ledeboer said. "We were turning children away from using a computer for word processing or to do their homework on, because they didn't have permission to work on a computer with Internet access.

"With the filters in place, all the computers in the children's areas are now packed."

Between July and December 2000 the district estimated there were 186,495 instances of children using an Internet station compared to 66,254 over the same six months in 1999. The filters went on line in October 2000, and are at least partially responsible for the increase that was also influenced by the addition of new computers, Ledeboer said.

The filtering program, Websense, updates daily, placing websites into numerous categories, including adult and sexually related sites, that can be filtered by the district. The district also has the ability to configure the filter to its specifications dropping or even adding sites if they are found to meet the district's standards, District Executive Director Daniel Walters said.

Under library policy children under 18 can use non-filtered computers in the adult sections of the library if they have a parent's permission.

ACLU Executive Director Gary Peck said he was disappointed that the board had approved the use of filters on any of its Internet computers.

"It's a bad idea, and a step down the road to censorship, and I hope that the board will take a step back and reconsider," Peck said.

The hearing was not an action item on the agenda, and it will be up to a member of the board if the issue is to be brought up for future discussion.