The XXX Library?

A neighbor was surprised to learn that people could access what some might see as questionable content on library computers. She pointed to a story about the San Francisco Public Library, which recently installed privacy hoods on their public computers, “to remind people to be sensitive to other patrons—a solution it prefers to filtering or censoring images,” aka content such as pornography, said the New York Times. In a letter to the editor, a reader responded by saying that viewing porn in public should be “forbidden because it creates a danger to children.”

“I was amazed there was any controversy over this (porn in libraries) issue,” neighbor Rosaly said, “but I also wouldn’t have allowed kids to play violent video games in a library either….”

The issue has led to at least a couple of violent altercations in Brooklyn libraries. Last year, a man assaulted another man who was viewing pornography on a computer, and earlier this year a man was stabbed because another man was angry when he said he saw the first was using a computer to watch pornography.

So, do you think people should be allowed to watch pornography in public libraries?