# Should PORN be allowed at PUBLIC LIBRARIES?? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [September 28, 2009, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-porn-be-allowed-at-public-libraries/511880 "2009-09-28T19:13:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2009, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-porn-be-allowed-at-public-libraries/511880/41 "2009-10-04T23:45:09Z")
> [@SaharaTea](#): > > I’m not seeing how computers could be placed somewhere that is 1) totally out of sight from children and other passerbys, and 2) still be easily monitored by library staff in case someone decides to spank it right there in the library. > > I think it’s a bad idea. I also don’t remember the Supreme Court ever interpreting the First Amendment to mean that we have the right to watch whatever we want in PUBLIC places. The best places have software that monitors what you are doing on the computer, and a single guard watching your every move, just like having security cameras. You’re in a public place–you have no reasonable expectation of privacy. That’s also how you handle exceptions: if you find your legitimate research topic is blocked, you go to the security guard, have them unlock it while watching what you do to make sure you weren’t lying. As for the OP: most people seem to think that porn is for masturbating. And we already know that masturbating in a public place is forbidden by public decency laws. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2009, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-porn-be-allowed-at-public-libraries/511880/42 "2009-10-04T23:57:35Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > The best places have software that monitors what you are doing on the computer NOOOOOOOOOO! Due to the Patriot Act and other laws like it, the vast majority of libraries have completely done away with storing any information on a patron’s Internet usage. This is also why most libraries do not keep records on what items you’ve checked out in the past. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Baldy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Gary\_Baldy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Baldy)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2009, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-porn-be-allowed-at-public-libraries/511880/43 "2009-10-05T00:20:23Z")
> [@gonzomax](#): > > You have to be very careful. The right wingers will want to be in charge of identifying what is porn. They will change" Moby Dick" to “Moby Richard.” they will have book burning parties. A library that only has 20,000 copies of the bible would not be very busy. You mean rightwingers such as Eric Flint that removes all references to smoking from stories and books from the pulp era of sci-fi that he edits because it annoys his Socialist PC sensiblities… ---
**Author:** ![Hyperelastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Hyperelastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hyperelastic)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2009, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-porn-be-allowed-at-public-libraries/511880/44 "2009-10-14T21:50:22Z")
Libraries get public funding because they promote information exchange, which everyone is in favor of and is willing to support through taxes. Porn has nothing to do with information exchange. The fact that it appears on paper or a computer screen, just like the _New York Times_, is wholly coincidental. A public library using its limited resources to provide free porn to perverts (anyone who looks at porn in a public place has serious self-control issues) is on its way to getting defunded, and rightly so. Here, read “porn” as “something that 99% or more of the public would classify as porn.” _Juggs_ = porn. _Maxim_ = probably not porn except in certain uptight locales that after all have the right to make their own rules. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2009, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-porn-be-allowed-at-public-libraries/511880/45 "2009-10-19T07:13:47Z")
> [@Hyperelastic](#): > > Libraries get public funding because they promote information exchange, which everyone is in favor of and is willing to support through taxes. No, not everyone. We’ve had threads to this effect. > [@](#): > > Here, read “porn” as “something that 99% or more of the public would classify as porn.” No. You can’t handwave this, or we’ll have filters that block information about condom usage and breast cancer. [Stewart failed here, too](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_know_it_when_I_see_it), so I perhaps should be less surprised, but it seems pretty obvious to me that the definition of pornography is slippery enough it can’t be encoded into any set of rules, whether or not those rules are ever turned into software. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Bith\_Shuffle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ce73a5/32.png) [@The\_Bith\_Shuffle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Bith_Shuffle)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2009, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-porn-be-allowed-at-public-libraries/511880/46 "2009-10-19T11:38:39Z")
There might be legal problems of some kind - restrictions of speech, maybe. I’m not a lawyer, so I wouldn’t know. But I don’t personally have a problem with it. Public libraries are just not about that sort of thing. I’m one of those neanderthals who think that libraries should stick to relatively wholesome material. I also don’t think that you can totally detach the viewing of porn from masturbation. Even if they didn’t intend to masturbate, somebody who goes to the library to watch porn on a computer is liable to try to sneak it if he thinks he might not get caught. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2009, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-porn-be-allowed-at-public-libraries/511880/47 "2009-10-19T17:57:04Z")
> [@The\_Bith\_Shuffle](#): > > I’m one of those neanderthals who think that libraries should stick to relatively wholesome material. So, no information about prostate cancer? How about the existence of homosexuality? Neither of those things are thought of as wholesome where I’m from. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2009, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-porn-be-allowed-at-public-libraries/511880/48 "2009-10-19T18:26:54Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > So, no information about prostate cancer? How about the existence of homosexuality? Neither of those things are thought of as wholesome where I’m from. I guess it’s a good thing librarians think they are then. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2009, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-porn-be-allowed-at-public-libraries/511880/49 "2009-10-20T17:53:44Z")
They should allow it and charge for it. They need a separate room like the xrated areas of video stores. Then they can help finance the libraries. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2009, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-porn-be-allowed-at-public-libraries/511880/50 "2009-10-20T18:20:33Z")
> [@gonzomax](#): > > They should allow it and charge for it. They need a separate room like the xrated areas of video stores. Then they can help finance the libraries. :eek: just :eek:. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2009, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-porn-be-allowed-at-public-libraries/511880/51 "2009-10-20T20:34:36Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > You have to do your homework. Aside from Censorin’ Sarah Palin, “right wingers” usually leave the public library alone. Censrship challenges almost always come from busybodies and bigots, and those titles have no party affiliation. They are republicans. They are the religious conservative arm of the party. ---
**Author:** ![Jerseyman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@Jerseyman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jerseyman)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2009, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-porn-be-allowed-at-public-libraries/511880/52 "2009-10-20T20:49:12Z")
If computers have to be booked days in advance for an hour at a time, there is not much chance that anybody will bother with porn. This is one case where internet cafes are quite cheap enough to let porn-watchers go there. How to actually block is a different matter but there is a good practical reason to do so. Most systems run Windows and a lot of porn carries Windows malware. Library users are almost certain to be computer illiterates or they’d have their own, and if a site tells them they need to download a codec to view the site, they won’t know a codec from malware from their - elbow and go ahead and do it. As for written porn, famously more than half of literary classics must have been classed as porn in their day. It’s not likely that anybody over the age of 14 is going to wade through something like Lady Chatterly or Last Exit just for the ‘dirty bits’. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-porn-be-allowed-at-public-libraries/511880.md?page=2)