GROUPS TAKE SIDES IN DEBATE OVER BLOCKING PORN ON LIBRARY COMPUTERS Thursday, May 22, 2008 By Stephen Baxter Despite opposition from San Jose's Library Commission, Youth Commission and the city's library director, Councilman Pete Constant is not backing down in his bid to filter pornography on library computers. In response to a recent city staff report that said software blocked too much or too little Internet material, he said he would demonstrate how to use the software at a public meeting on May 30 at city hall. A May 7 library staff report listed five options to address blocking pornography, from adding screens to computer monitors to installing an always-on filter that could be enhanced for uses younger than 17. Constant said none of the options were perfect, and he wants to adopt a policy that would ban pornography viewing in the library. "My intent is to make libraries clean, safe and attractive places. Kids shouldn't be exposed to porn," Constant said. He has conceded that porn surfing is not as common in branch libraries as it is at Martin Luther King Jr. Library downtown, but in his district library in West San Jose, he worries that children walking to the children's area might accidently catch something X-rated on an adult computer. Library Commission chairwoman Caroline Martin, who opposes filters and supports adding screens to computer monitors, said other issues surrounding pornography are focused on the King library.  "What happens at King library is different than what happens at branch libraries," she said. Martin added that paying $60,000 to $400,000 to add screens or filters is a bad idea considering libraries will be closed on Sundays, as outlined in the 2008-09 draft city budget. Constant said he hoped libraries would be open on Sundays next year, and he said that San Jose has not been seeking federal money for filters. He said the filters would be "cost neutral." On a trip to visit family in Phoenix in February, Constant went to the city's main library where Websense software is used to filter porn. Worried that filters might over-block information on "breast cancer" and other health-related searches, he typed in a list of words that San Jose library staff said would be inaccessible. Sitting with an information technology staff member, he found that they were all accessible. The councilman plans to show Websense software in his presentation, and he indicated that it is his preferred option of four popular filters. Phoenix libraries' software is always on, whereas other cities in places such as Sacramento and Los Angeles County have cardholder-age based filters. According to the San Jose library report on filters, Websense's problem is under-blocking, not overblocking. "Images of an adult sexual nature still got through the [Websense] filters," the report stated, including image searches for "huge breasts, rape photos and the Spanish term 'putas.'" The Websense filter also occasionally overblocked, the report said. A search for National Geographic images of beavers, for example, was blocked. Martin said computer users who ask for material to be unblocked might be shy, in part because many patrons already do not ask for help, and it would be embarrassing if the matter involved a disease or a sexual orientation matter. She said a solution would be for parents to better police their children. "Most of the people using the computers don't have one at home," Martin said. "So there's always the hope that parents are watching their kids." Constant's meeting on computer filters will be held from 3 to 5 p.m., May 30 in room W-118 of San Jose City Hall, 200 E. Santa Clara St. The city council is expected to vote on the filters at its June 17 meeting at 7:30 p.m.