'Net Access Unrestricted at Cambridge Library

In the wake of a conference concerning kids and the Internet held in the nation's capital by Vice President Al Gore '69 last week, Cambridge parents are taking steps to ensure that their children are not exposed to indecent material in Cyberspace.

Their first stumbling block may be in sight: computer terminals, offering limitless Internet access, are scheudled to make their debut in the children's section of the Cambridge Public Library.

Library staff say they are against blocking access to certain sites. Some parents, however, are bemoaning the proposed lack of restrictions and are worried that their children could accidentally land on the darker side of the Internet.

Last week's conference in Washington, which was sponsored by several high-technology companies and public policy groups, focused on the need to prevent online pornography from reaching young Web-users.

The increasing presence of computers in schools and public libraries has heightened parental awareness of the relative ease with which children are accessing adult sites.

Libraries, as information centers, face the unique challenge of both serving and protecting young readers.

According to Susan Flannery, director of the Cambridge Public Library, new computer terminals with World Wide Web access will soon be added to the children's department at the library's main branch, located at 449 Broadway.

Cambridge school teachers are joining city parents in expressing concern about the potential for misuse of the technology.

"I think the machines should be monitored," Jackie S. Roberts said. The mother of two boys, age 10 and 11, who attend the Haggerty School, Roberts said she worries that while children may not seek explicit sites, they may arrive at them accidentally.

"Kids wander, and they don't always know what they're doing," Roberts said.

But Flannery said that in the three-and-a-half years that computers with Internet access have been available in the adult section of the main library, she has received no complaints about pornographic sites.

"Worry about pornography, while quite real, is probably overblown," said Flannery. "Most people are using the computers for research."

Library records show that 450 to 500 people use their machines every month. Susan Ciccone, a reference librarian at the main branch, said the three terminals offering Netscape are almost constantly in use.

"We have people signed up to go online all day long," Ciccone said.

Despite the popularity of the Web and the amount of national attention the issue of indecent sites has received, Flannery said she does not intend to equip the incoming children's computers with any kind of filter. Filters are commonly employed by system administrators to block access to specific sites.

"I'm philosophically opposed to the use of filters," Flannery said. "The library has a unique role, and it's for parents to tell their kids not to seek out pornography."

But some Cambridge residents disagree with Flannery concerning the need for Web restriction.

"Computers in the children's department must be locked out of getting access to certain sites," said Ginny H. Payson, an assistant teacher at the John M. Tobin School and a mother of two.

"A lot of kids today know how to get to a lot of stuff," Payson said. "And with all the publicity about pornography on the Web, there's bound to be some kind of curiosity in every child."

Without filters, many parents say they would at least like to see the computers monitored.

A few parents who have Internet access at home say they oversee their children to ensure that they use the Web properly. Instead of forbidding their kids to visit indecent sites, these parents choose to regulate their children's online activity.

"A block would send a message of distrust, so I wander in and out of the room a lot when the children are on the Web," Roberts said.

While Flannery is opposed to restricting access to library resources, parents say that because pornographic material poses a serious threat to their children, it warrants intervention.

"Libraries would have to take on the responsibility of making sure computers they provide are not misused," Payson said.

"I wouldn't be upset if the library restricted access," said Linda Nathan, Principal of the Fenway Middle College High School in Boston and the mother of two boys at Cambridgeport School.

"After all, libraries don't stock pornographic materials in the children's department," Nathan said.

Flannery said she has not heard of any incidents of improper Web use in her contacts with Cambridge school administrators. But Roberts did recall an episode that occurred last year involving several classmates of her son at the Haggerty School. According to Roberts, the boys "somehow wandered into the Playboy site" while using a computer with Web access at school.

Nathan said issues of Internet misuse have "come up at [her] school" in Boston but that "she has faith that the district will think of something" to remedy the situation.

As an alternative to built-in locks on the computers, Nathan--who said she and her three children visit the main branch twice a week--suggested that attentive library staff could monitor access.

"I'd support hands-on librarians," Nathan said. "I have very high marks for them, and my kids think they're great."