When I wrote last month that the city council and Dallas’ Only Daily Newspaper had better things to do than police the computers at the downtown library, I didn’t expect anything to happen. But, believe it or not, the city staff paid attention.
Not to me, of course, but to the larger issues involved, like censorship and artistic freedom. The News and several members of the council were treating this as if it were the end of the world, without regard to the consequences of their actions — other than pandering for circulation and votes.
The staff, in a surprisingly level-headed decision (too bad this group doesn’t have anything to do with toll roads), said that computer porn filters weren’t effective because they can block non-pornographic material while failing to block the really dirty stuff.
In other words, it could block someone from researching Madame Bovary, a novel about a very naughty housewife, just as effectively as it could block someone from accessing a porn site focusing on naughty housewives.
A more effective solution, said the staff report, would be installing software that notified the user and library staff when someone was dialing up the naughty housewives. "It cannot be stressed enough that the best solution to prevent access to inappropriate Internet content is ALWAYS through monitoring usage," the report said.
I’m also curious about cost and how that figured into this, something The News doesn’t discuss. Given the library system’s traditional penury, could it have afforded filters?
And, finally, we can expect an outraged editorial from The News, based on how the story noted above was written, including this gem: "The recommendation runs counter to several City Council members’ stated desire for Dallas to install pornography-blocking software on public library computers."
It is always such a pleasure to see a newspaper foursquare on the side of censorship.
