- "Man Accused of Downloading Child Pornography in College Library Says He Has Shared Images for Years," by Bill Draper/Associated Press, The Republic (Columbus, Indiana), 9 March 2013.
- "Mo. Child Porn Suspect Admits Decade of Violations," by Bill Draper/Associated Press, The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 9 March 2013.
In the stories one police source figures prominently:
Frank Kardasz, retired commander of the Arizona Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, said his task force worked dozens of cases involving people viewing or trafficking child pornography while using public and college library computers.
The problem is tough to police because of the imperfect nature of Internet filtering devices and pushback from free-speech advocates who believe adults should have the right to view adult pornography in libraries, he said, adding that any place offering wireless Internet connections "is an opportunity for child pornography offenders to traffic contraband images."
"My experience is that some, not all, libraries underreport the offenses because they do not wish to bring attention nor police involvement to their facility," said Kardasz, founder and director of the Phoenix-based Cyberspace Child Protection Campaign. "Also, because many offenders are nefarious enough to avoid apprehension, there are probably more offenses occurring than we are aware of."
That Cyberspace Child Protection Campaign is an open Facebook group having 360 members of which I am one of the earliest members. And I have written about Dr. Frank Kardasz previously:
- "Child Porn Trafficking in Public Libraries; Libraries Actively Thwart Child Porn Investigations," by Dan Kleinman, SafeLibraries, 24 June 2009.
- "Library Director Admits Keeping Police in the Dark in Gilbert, Arizona; American Library Association Guidance Not To Inform Police May Be the Reason," by Dan Kleinman, SafeLibraries, 12 June 2011.
- "Banned Books Week Versus Library Crime; Call for the ALA to Track Library Crime," by Dan Kleinman, SafeLibraries, 17 August 2009. (ALA still refuses to track library crime, by the way, while it fakes instances of supposedly banned books.)
I am so happy the police caught up with and stopped the criminal. And I am also happy to expose yet again that acceptable use policies are failures, as this case evidences, and that libraries hold them up like they are so precious—here it's the school's first defense:
Kathy Walter-Mack, chief of staff for MCC Chancellor Mark James, declined to discuss Lawrence's case because he is a student at the college and is the focus of an ongoing investigation. She said the college's policies prohibit the unlawful use of its computer networks.
That said, it should be known that the Associated Press author contacted Dr. Frank Kardasz as a direct result of his having learned of the good doctor right here on the SafeLibraries blog. I love linking numerous reliable sources in my posts, and when main stream media is using them to find experts, I know I am being successful in exposing the harmful activities of the ALA. So thanks, ALA, for tracking the story to which I directly contributed. As a direct result of my work, you are learning:
But the First Amendment, Kardasz said, was crafted long before the invention of computers.
"While I support free speech, I cannot imagine that the framers of the Constitution foresaw pornography in the library as acceptable when children are also present," he said.
And indeed, the US Supreme Court said, directly to ALA/ACLU, "public libraries' use of Internet filtering software does not violate their patrons' First Amendment rights...." Are there, as Dr. Kardasz put it, "free-speech advocates who believe adults should have the right to view adult pornography in libraries"? Yes, but they do not have that right. If your library is saying they do, here's a road map for removing porn from libraries.
URL of this page: safelibraries.blogspot.com/2013/03/AP.html
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comments of a personal nature, trolling, and linkspam may be removed.