Fairbanks library commission says yes to porn filters with adult choice
FAIRBANKS - The Fairbanks North Star Borough library advisory commission says pornography filters should be installed on borough library computers, but adults should have the option of shutting them off.
The final decision falls to the Borough Assembly, which will discuss the issue in September.
Borough Mayor Rhonda Boyles has called for the filters to keep children from looking at inappropriate Web sites.
Critics say filters censor more than pornographic sites, limiting freedom of inquiry.
A borough ordinance, co-sponsored by Boyles and Assembly member Rick Solie, does not provide the option for adults to shut off the Web site blocks.
Diane Borgeson, chairwoman of the library commission, said the panel's recommendation to allow adults unfettered Internet access is a compromise of sorts.
"This is just a real easy solution to providing everybody with what they want," Borgeson said. "If people want filters, they can have filters. If they don't, they don't have to."
Most of the roughly 50 people at a public hearing last week told the commission they wanted unhindered Internet access for adults, according to the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner.
The issue of filters emerged following a U.S. Supreme Court decision allowing the federal government to withhold certain computer-related funding from libraries that don't have pornography blocks.
The federal government pays for the borough libraries' Internet service provider, a subsidy of $2,795 this year. The filters cost about $20,000. That's what the Fairbanks school district, which has filters for all of its 6,000 computers, pays.