sick f%$& at the library-kid sexually assulted

[Tama]

That's like telling people they can drink but not get drunk.

[Imogene]

We can all rest easily tonight knowing there's a special hell

My brother and I got to Our Mrs. Reynolds of Firefly, and now routinely warn each other of our own 'special Hells'...

[ralerin]

Then again, what six year old would know what anything like sexual assault is?
... I'm not sure I want to know the answer, but it's entirely possible.
(

Best friend's cousin's stepdaughter knew, she was barely 2 years old.

Best part? The father is attempting to put the blame on his twelve year old son.

[reimero]

I used to work as an IT guy at a public library, meaning I was on the front lines for quite a bit of this.

Yes, we had (at least) one child molestation incident.
Yes, we had several instances of people looking at illicit porn.
Yes, we had other related fun incidents.

Needless to say, as much as I support the free exchange of information and ideas and as libertarian as I fancy myself, the time I spent on the front lines has made me a fan of filters and strong computer use policies. It's one of those things you can't fully appreciate until you've been there and had to clean up the mess

[Sapphire Silk]

or a good grab & twist


any chance you can install content filters?
granted there's often ways around them but it may help discourage the ones who don't know a lot about computers at least.

The librarians at my public library say filters don't work well. They have them, but what really helps is bandwidth chokers on porn feeds. It affects non porn graphics too, but no one really complains.

I hope the guy who molested the kid gets not nice things shoved up his rectum while waiting for his day at court, though.

Oh, he will, if the other inmates find out what he's in for. Child molesters are on the bottom of the inmate food chain.

[thansal]

or a good grab & twist


any chance you can install content filters?
granted there's often ways around them but it may help discourage the ones who don't know a lot about computers at least.

<snip>
I realized my rant on why content filters are wrong for libraries is probably fratching material.
</snip>

At least by memo it sounds like the library reacted quickly and appropriately to the situation which I applaud them for. Libraries are very touchy areas. They tend to be insanely (at times) busy, completely open to the public, and a place where children are often left alone (I spent a lot of time alone in libraries growing up).

[depechemodefan]

teh_blumchenkinder does have a point. For all we know, kid was walking by the guy at the computer and he had porn up. His mom/dad finally looks up from WoW to notice kid has been quiet for the past 10 min. and notice kid is looking over guys shoulder, and the guy doesn't realize the kid is there (though I've always seen adults realizing kid is looking over their shoulder, and usually shows kid the website they are looking at). Though I suppose the memo added "alleged" to it since the guy wasn't convicted yet. I know I've read a lot of newspaper articles were "alleged" is added even though the culprit was found with the gun, and there were 10 witnesses who saw him shoot the other person.

At our library around the beginning of the century, we allowed pron since it was our first amendment right to it. I was giving a tour to some M.S. kids and went to the 3rd fl where there were 6 internet terminals. Each terminal had one of those filter screens so you have to stand right behind someone to see what they are seeing. All 6 dudes were looking at pron and 5 of them logged out and ran away as soon as they saw the group. One dude still was looking at pron (huge dong on the screen) and kids were giggling and teacher wanted to know if I could do anything. I went to a cw on the floor to say something to the guy but cw did't want to. So I went quickly through my tour to get away from the guy.

[jedimaster91]

Back when I was the computer lab babysitter, our policy was no nudity. G-string and pasties were fine, although security would occasionally tell patrons there were kids around and what they were looking at was not appropriate. We did have at least one instance of kiddie porn and I remember the local news doing an expose (hehe) on library porn viewers. Personally I used to tell patrons we didn't care what they did with their own computers at home. But at the library they had to play by our rules.

[Dave1982]

The subject of child molestation really is better suited for fratching....

[MoonCat]

As far as "lambasting", I don't see anything wrong with saying that IF the guy is guilty, we hope he goes away for a very long time. We don't know his name or where he lives, he's in no danger from anyone posting comments here, and most of us aren't likely to end up on his jury.

I don't doubt that something bad happened to the kid. Police don't charge people with assault if some kid just happens to be looking over someone's shoulder at a website.

But l wouldn't take the claims of seeing someone looking at porn before the attack too seriously. I know some people do that at libraries. It's just that people often say they saw something after they hear of a crime occurring. Maybe they did, maybe they didn't. To some people, the lingerie section of a women's-wear catalog is porn. You wouldn't believe some of the pics on Wikipedia, come to think of it.