Where Has All the Common Sense Gone?

I see that the Supreme Court will rule on whether federal funding can be stripped from public libraries that do not install porn filters on their Internet access. C’mon, let’s use some sense here. Here’s what I have to say:

1. It takes a sick person to go view porn at a public library.

2. Filters don’t always work well; either a human has to judge and constantly update the filters or they work on some algortihm that won’t work perfectly.

3. Just because something isn’t available at a public library doesn’t mean that someone’s free speech was violated.

4. Yes, parents should be watching what their children are viewing. However, given the sleazy tactics of porn site operators, it is quite possible to accidentally stumble upon a porn site. This would expose a child to the porn, possibly before the parents could react. For example, the .gov site may be a government site, but the same address with .com on the end may be a porn site.

With that being said, filters are not perfect, but something is needed. Libraries should be expected to help parents protect children from porn, whether they would view it themselves or on the computer of the sick person next to them.