Monday, November 16, 2009

Bandwidth Shaper Slows Porn in Greensboro Public Library; Parents Had Stopped Taking Kids to Library; Acceptable Use Policies Do Not Work; List of Articles on Getting Porn Out of Libraries


Another library acts to stop porn viewing!  Look at this innovative approach, called bandwidth shaping, in the Greensboro Public Library in Greensboro, NC, using a device by Cymphonix:
A device called a "bandwidth shaper" is designed to identify Web sites by categories — including pornography — and allow the library to slow down access.
When the device finds a computer streaming video from a porn site, the bandwidth is slowed to 1 kilobit per second — slower than old-fashioned dial-up — which would cause the screen to give an error or timed-out message.
"It's not filtering it," said Tommy Joseph, manager of technology and reference at the library. "It's discouraging it."
Source: "Library Computer Users Viewing Porn Anger Parents," by Lorraine Ahearn, News & Record, 15 November 2009, emphasis added.

It's not filtering, it's "discouraging"!  I love that!



And again we see "acceptable use policies" do not work to stop porn viewing:
Internet porn viewing is a hot enough issue on the library system's 227 public computers that the city this year quietly purchased a device that identifies porn sites and makes them load so slowly that they are difficult to view.

At Central Library between January and July, security guards caught 89 card-carrying patrons viewing pornography on the computers. Most of the patrons caught viewing porn at the Central Library would have received an initial warning that they were violating the library's "acceptable computer use" agreement.

Greensboro Public Library, tell us more!  Get the message out to other libraries so they too can try the "bandwidth shaper," "the $8,000 Cymphonix bandwidth management system now in place"!

Meantime, I'll get the message out that libraries can successfully remove porn (although Greensboro Library Director Sandy Neerman says filters do not work, but she does admit libraries should consider community standards: "It’s an institution, but also, what is the community standard, and what are they willing to support? It’s a balance you’re weighing all the time."):

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3 comments:

  1. I am happy to report LISNews has picked up my story:

    "Bandwidth Shaper Slows Porn in Greensboro Public Library," by Blake Carver, LISNews, 16 November 2009.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This editorial is outstanding:

    "Editorial: Libraries Versus Porn," by Editorial, News & Record, 19 November 2009, emphasis mine.

    "Like a filter, the bandwidth shaper can misread a valid source as Internet porn. Further, librarians tend to defend the First Amendment as fiercely as newspaper people.

    "But there have to be reasonable limits. The library rightly has promoted the bandwidth shaper from pilot project to standard procedure. The occasional burps in that technology are a small price to pay for family-friendly libraries."

    Look at that! "Family-friendly libraries"! What a concept!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Another outstanding story:

    "Faced with Too Little Bandwidth, Some Libraries Limit Streaming Media, Porn; Aim is to Ensure Access to ILS, Databases," by Norman Oder, Library Journal, 24 November 2009:

    "Cymphonix spokesman Scott Hair told LJ that, along with shaping bandwidth, the product can be used for filtering and to block malware. He said bandwidth can be sliced by both upload and download speed, as well as by group, so staff bandwidth could be separated from that offered to patrons.

    "Another library customer in a Cymphonix case study is Corpus Christ Public Libraries, TX, which learned that streaming media accounted for consumption of 30 percent of the libraries’ available bandwidth, with even more devoted to online communities, pornography, and gaming sites. Knowing that allows the library to prioritize bandwidth to ensure that 'public browsing does not negatively impact the business-necessary ILS,' according to the case study."

    ReplyDelete

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