Library, Child Pornography, Personal Privacy, First Amendment Rights, Bacon? What?

[Alex]

Originally Posted by Cadaverous Pallor

Again, I say that if someone is trying to hide their monitor, they most probably should not be using the computer in the public library. I see no problem with investigating that.

And I disagree. No more than I would go up and insist on seeing what someone was reading if they were obviously trying to hide it. Of course, in my opinion, no library should force people to hide what their viewing. It should be inherent in the set up.

If this was a case of "doing it in plain sight" then I'd be more interested in discussing the limits on that. But it wasn't. If going to some lengths to discover and block porn watching beyond "plain sight" is warranted why not just set up mirrors of all the computer displays on a machine in the back room so you can watch what every person is doing? Yes, obviously that is much more extreme, but from my point of view it is only a difference in degree not nature. So, she did the right thing once she saw what she saw. She did the wrong thing in the way she came to see it.

The police should give her a medal. The library should fire her.