Acton’s PowerBlog has an article about youth gangs and public libraries
My local library is apparently having a problem with youth gangs who are using the public computers to access social networking sites, such as MySpace and Facebook. The hooligans are defacing each others sites, sending threatening messages, and causing other kinds of trouble.
The best solution anyone can come up with so far is to ban access to social networking sites on library computers. On the surface, this doesn’t seem like a big deal. That is, however, until we run into the age old problem with things being public. A private computer lab can ban all the content they want, but when something runs on public funding, there are different rules that must be followed.
The library’s response to claims of first amendment violation:
“It is only a trial,” Martha Smart, KDL director, said. “It’s very important to provide freedom of access to information for the public. We want to protect people’s First Amendment rights.”
What would you say to some “trial runs” of violating other rights? Maybe we could beat Christians for a week or so. How about a month of free searches and seizures?
