S.F. Library's New Privacy Screens Help You Watch Porn More Discretely

By Matt Saincome Fri., Jul. 27 2012 at 10:30 AM

The San Francisco Library recently added new privacy screens to 18 of the computers at their main branch.

The screens are designed to help keep your viewing private from people who are passing by or sitting next to you. Which wouldn't be a big issue if you were researching the topic of your next term paper, checking your e-mail, or reading book reviews. Alas, we can't help but think the real purpose for protecting your screen is to make sure no one sees you watching videos of people bumpin' uglies.

City Librarian Luis Herrera told KTVU news the screens are an alternative to a filtering system, and that, "We're always looking for any kind of elegant solution that strikes a balance between the right to privacy and folks that want to use the library for any other intended purpose."

Personally, we are outraged by the library's decision to encourage this vulgar behavior in public spaces. That's why we are announcing right now the start of our own neighborhood watch-like group for the library called, The Boner Patrol. Our mission is simple: Find the boners and eliminate them. We don't care what it takes. We will track down any suspicious-looking characters and rain down on them harder than Chick Fil-A does the gays.

So, who's with us?!

For more events in San Francisco this week and beyond, check out our calendar section. Follow us on Twitter at @ExhibitionistSF and like us on Facebook.

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San Francisco Main Library

100 Larkin, San Francisco, CA

Category: General

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censorship, library, luis herrera, porn, privacy, public libraries, screens, sex

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safelibraries

The library is lying. Filtering out porn is NOT censorship. The US Supreme Court found it perfectly legal to filter out porn, just like libraries already have book selection policies that filter out porn. Yes, porn may be legal, but a library is NOT an open public forum where anything goes, so the library has reasonable and legal control mechanisms available to it. See:

http://tinyurl.com/ALAdogma

What is going on here is the library leadership is acting like it is the authority. It is not. The people are. He thinks he will act like he knows the law and people will follow along. Joe Walsh's new album, "Analog Man," has a song "Lucky That Way" containing the following message:

I'll let you all in on a little secret

If I could share with you a thing or two

If you just act like you know what you're doing

Everybody thinks that you do

And that's how the San Francisco library leader is acting, and everybody thinks he's right. He's not. I'll let you all in on a little secret. The library is lying and it knows it is lying. Just look at another library investigative report where, when the library director is finally cornered about her lies, she merely says, well then, "avert your eyes."

San Francisco Bay Area, CA: "Porn, Sex Crimes At Libraries; I-Team Investigation," KGO, 29 Nov 2006, "[T]he Martin Luther King Library has a problem with pornography. They have no rule against viewing photographs or full-screen sex videos from Internet sites, even with children nearby. Chief librarian Jane Light says it's a matter of free speech. .... ABC7's Dan Noyes: 'I've seen the [privacy] screens and I see how they work and the stuff is visible from behind. You can see everything.' Jane Light...: 'So you can avert your eyes.' .... San Jose's police blotter over the past year lists several arrests for child porn at the library, at least ten cases of child molestation or other sex crimes involving kids and several cases of men viewing porn and performing a lewd act, right at the terminal. .... Sgt. John Laws, San Jose library police: 'It showed him sitting at the computer terminal and ... masturbating.' .... Marcia Stacke, Child Quest International: 'You know, sometimes I wonder if we're just too afraid to be, I don't know, sued in this country. We've got to step out and protect our kids. Enough is enough.'"

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=i_team&id=4808374

Apparently enough wasn't enough and the libraries are fooling the public again.

Citizens of San Francisco: your library is misleading you and endangering your community and especially your children, convincing you not to demand legal and effective means to protect yourselves, namely, Internet filters. Privacy screens do not work except to give the library a cover story to appear as if it is taking appropriate action.

Media: If balance is your interest, I have been opposing the ALA on this very issue for over a decade. Contact me:

http://tinyurl.com/AboutDan