Censorship at MLK Library

San Jose Councilman Pete Constant and The Values Advocacy Council are working together to pass legislation that would filter pornographic and other adult materials on computers used in San Jose’s public libraries.

For those of you who are not aware, San Jose State University and the city of San Jose came together to build Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library on the university’s campus, the first joint library in the country.

Currently, there are no filters placed on any of the library computers citywide. Library officials do not want to block information from the public. Also, the library provides privacy screens for those viewing adult material.

Constant is specifically concerned about children viewing “second-hand porn” from others that are viewing explicit material on library computers.

According to my politics professor, Cindy Chavez, if filters were to be placed on library computers, it would not affect San Jose State students because the school told the city, that no restrictions on information could be placed on students.

As a San Jose State student, and journalism major to boot, I think filtering library computers would be the first step in a very slippery slope toward censorship. I believe strongly in a person’s First Amendment rights and his or her freedom to information.

Coincidentally, in my Media Law and Ethics class we are studying obscenity and censorship. What is obscene and what can be censored?

The Miller Test has become the standard for determining if material or speech can be labeled obscene. It consists of three elements:

• Whether the average person, applying contemporary community standards, would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest,
• Whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct or excretory functions specifically defined by applicable state law,
• Whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, and scientific value.

So, does second-hand porn “pass” the Miller Test? Obviously, the material needs to be analyzed on a case-by-case standard, but generally I think that one can argue pornography has artistic value, unless it is child pornography—that’s always obscene.

There are very rare cases where I believe in censorship, but this isn’t one of them. If an individual wants to research sex education, breast cancer or sexual orientations, are they going to be denied legitimate information because of the fear it may be pornography?

In a perfect world, individuals would be aware of the images they are viewing in the presence of children. Obviously, this is not always the case. I would be OK if the city installed filters in the children section of the city’s libraries, but overall I think parents should supervise their children when visiting the library to shield them from any images they do not want their children to see.