Another sad story about perverts in libraries.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/library_boy_assaulted;_ylt=Arcn2usvLSXm.WJUZA3r_hUDW7oF
Corey Saunders, 26, is accused of luring the boy into the stacks and raping him while the child's mother worked on a computer less than 10 feet away from her son.
There are a lot of things wrong with this scenario.
First, you have the mother. She drags her boy with her to the library so that she can get on the computers. It did not say what she was doing, but I can tell you from experience, it was probably just farting around on myspace or gambling online. We have a name for these kids around my library. We call them "Internet Orphans". Before we limited daily access to the computers to just a few hours, we would have kids in here for 10+ hours straight! Poor kids. Bad parents.
Second, you have the library policy on the internet. Or, lack of automatic enforcement of the policy. Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert uses a term I love. Weasel Words. "Weasel words are deliberately misleading or ambiguous language used to avoid making a straightforward statement while giving the appearance that such has been made. This type of language is used to deceive, distract, or manipulate an audience." ref
Instead of just saying "we do not filter", the library states...
"The Library cannot control and is not able to monitor any information on the Internet for either content or accuracy."
http://www.ci.new-bedford.ma.us/Library/internetpolicy.html
What does this mean exactly? I can tell you,, it means they do not filter. I did further sleuthing into boring meeting minutes to confirm this. "Yes-sir-ree, no filters for me!".. sang all the perverts in New Bedford, Mass.
Third and finally, you have the boy. I am not in any way saying it is the boys fault, but it is sad that he did not think to scream or yell or run or bite or something. Especially considering his mom was ten feet away. I have told my kids to scream their bloody heads off if anybody tries anything 'funny'. I certainly hope they would follow thru with it. It is sad this poor fellow did not.
In conclusion, perverts are bad.
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2 comments:
What an outstanding comment you have made. I too looked at that weasel-word policy and also found filters were not used. But you dug deeper and confirmed it.
Do you know the library director, responding directly to me, said that there are filters, but that this low IQ criminal bypassed them?? See Massachusetts Library Revisits Security after Child Molested, ALA, American Libraries. Here is my response, noting the same policy problem you did, and since then it's been silence as usually from the ALA.
Have you noticed everyone's talking about banning people from various zones but conveniently no one's talking about how computer filters might have prevented this problem in the first place?
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