February 24, 2000

Voters Defeat Measure on Filters at Library

By KEITH BRADSHER

OLLAND, Mich., Feb. 23 -- Voting on the nation's first ballot measure to shackle the Internet on library computers and keep children from being exposed to pornography, the people of this deeply conservative town have chosen not to force a public library to filter computer access to the Web.

Related Articles Michigan Law Leaves Library's Internet Filters Open to Debate (August 6, 1999) Court Tackles New Angle on Library Internet Filtering (December 4, 1998) Library Grapples With Internet Freedom (Oct. 15, 1998)

Conservatives had labeled the showdown as the "Lexington and Concord" of the struggle over American libraries' Internet policies, and Christian conservative groups outspent free-speech advocates by 14 to 1. But residents voted 55 percent to 45 percent against the proposal, which would have cut off municipal financing for the library here unless it blocked access from its computers to sites containing "obscene, sexually explicit or other material harmful to minors."

The referendum was on the same ballot as the statewide Republican primary on Tuesday, and helped increase turnout to 41 percent of registered voters here, more than double the usual level in a primary.

The vote here in southwestern Michigan, in what is sometimes known as Michigan's Bible Belt, comes at a time of mounting pressure on public libraries across the country to prevent patrons, particularly minors, from visiting Web sites featuring pornography and other material that many conservatives find objectionable. The American Library Association estimates that 15 percent of the nation's public libraries have already installed filtering software to prevent patrons from visiting various kinds of sites, especially pornographic ones.

Proponents of filtering say that children could suffer permanent emotional scars if they stumble across an indecent site, even while supervised. "The librarians can't move fast enough to prevent that image from entering the child's mind and staying there forever," said Gary Glenn, the president of the American Family Association of Michigan, which sponsored the measure.

Judith Krug, the director of the office for intellectual freedom at the American Library Association, said that psychological studies had shown that children were not so easily affected by sexual imagery. The association contends that Internet filters are a good tool for home computers but violate the First Amendment when they are used in libraries.

Critics contend that filtering software can also block access even to some educational sites, and may create a false sense of security among parents and library administrators, because the software can sometimes be circumvented.

Some voters here had an additional concern: children of families not affluent enough to afford home computers might suffer academically. "I really don't think it's a good idea because it's a disadvantage to the poor," said Mary Hunt, a 57-year-old homemaker who said as she left the polls at Holland's Civic Center on Tuesday evening that she had voted against the measure.

Computers in the children's area are not connected to the Web at all.

Identifying herself as African-American and Native American, Ms. Hunt said that if the measure had passed, it would have been particularly harmful to this city's growing minority community.

But sentiment was very different outside a polling place at one of this city's four Christian schools. Chris Ransom, a 28-year-old manager at a metal scrap recycling company, said that he had not connected his family's home computer to the Internet because of worries that his 11-year-old son, Justin, and 9-year-old daughter, Jessica, might see something inappropriate. He said he had cautioned both children about using the Internet at their friends' homes or at the library.

His wife, Cyndi, who sat next to him in the family minivan after they had both voted for the ballot proposal, added that, "We warn them that you can get out there and you never know when you're going to get into" inappropriate sites.

Holland, a city of 32,000, is not alone in wrestling with Internet issues here. Nearby Georgetown Township, which has 50,000 people, has already installed filtering software on all computers in its public library, in defiance of a state law requiring that public libraries with Internet access have at least one computer without filtering software. Another city nearby, Hudsonville, turned off all Internet access from computers at its libraries here on Dec. 9, for fear of lawsuits by conservatives if filters are not installed and by First Amendment advocates if filters are installed. The vote against the Holland proposal was 4,379 to 3,626.

The public library in Holland is a very large and beautiful building of limestone and glass that even features a cafe in the basement that serves cappuccino and omelettes. While the library's board has rejected Internet filters, the staff closely supervises use of the Internet.

Computers in the children's area are not connected to the Web at all. Seven computers in the adult section with Web connections are on desks arranged in the shape of a horseshoe, and Karen Goorhous, the library's computer trainer, sits at the base of the horseshoe, where she can see what people are viewing. Computers with Internet access do not have drives for diskettes, to prevent users from downloading information, and files can be printed from the Internet only using a printer behind the reference librarians' desk.

Ms. Goorhous said that only once had she found someone, an adult man, viewing clearly pornographic material, and she had told him to stop. But she said that some residents had also complained when other patrons used the Internet to visit sites that were not necessarily pornographic, like one that featured a photograph of Britney Spears, the teen-age pop singer.

"Her navel was showing," Ms. Goorhous said.

John R. Meengs, the president of the library's board, said that there had been no complaints that the library's existing oversight of Internet use might already be too restrictive.

The ballot initiative here was led by Irvin Bos, a 59-year-old builder and manager of apartment buildings who said he had dedicated himself to fighting pornography because of an incident that occurred when he was 12 years old. He found a sexually explicit book by the roadside then and read it over and over again in the family's barn, Mr. Bos said in an interview today. When lightning struck the barn six months later, burning it down and killing the family's prize bull and best cow, Mr. Bos felt responsible.

"I just knew I had caused that barn to burn down," Mr. Bos said.

His ballot drive was bankrolled by the American Family Association. Mr. Glenn said that he hoped to discuss the issue with the library board. If filtering software is not installed -- and there is little sign that the board is changing its position -- the association will try again on the November ballot, he said.