Solano Libraries Bring on the Filters

All kids under the age of 18 must use Internet-filtering software while surfing the Web at all seven branches of the Solano County Library in California. The recent decision by the Solano County Board of Supervisors was in response to parent Toni Horn’s complaint that her nine-year-old daughter had seen a sexually explicit image on a computer being used by another patron, according to press reports.

“Why promote storytime and lap sits and summer reading programs for kids when you can simply walk into the library and see pornography?” Horn told KRON 4, a local Bay Area TV station.

The 3–2 vote, made after six months of public forums and discussions, is expected to be in place some time this month, says Donna Corbell, an administrator with the Solano County Library. While filters will be installed on all 231 workstations, library staff can disable the software at the request of an adult, and children under the age of 18 can surf unfiltered materials with the written consent of a parent. Librarians have been instructed to monitor how the new rules are working and to report back to the board within six months on any patron complaints or problems the staff may have encountered.

Nearly 40 percent of public libraries nationwide use one or more methods of Internet filtering, according to a 2004 study sponsored by the American Library Association and the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Libraries that refuse to install filters risk losing federal funds, such as e-rate, a program that provides discounts on Internet and telecommunications services. But recent studies have found that filters impede students’ schoolwork by blocking anti-smoking, sex-education, and other relevant sites.

The board had considered other courses of action, including the purchase of privacy screens, which would limit the view of computer screens to persons sitting directly in front of them, but the cost was estimated at $50,000. The board opted to take a cheaper route, spending an annual fee of $2,500 on top of an initial cost of $13,500 for filtering software and the necessary hardware from the California-based company Surf Control, Corbell says.