So, on Tuesday we all went to University Day and asked strangers whether or not the Dimond Library should have a porn policy. To my surprise, none of the people we asked were aware that a registered sex offender was caught viewing child pornography in the library over the summer. Most people were surprised to hear about it, and disgusted. After hearing the news, four out of five people said that there should be a porn policy in the library. The main reason seemed like it would be to ensure child porn was not being viewed, because most people did not seem too worried about someone watching legal porn in the library, although it would make them uncomfortable. Only one person surveyed said she would report it. One person, admittedly playing devil's advocate, asked what if someone was doing research on pornography. She had done a research paper on prostitution and wondered if a policy against explicit materials would have negatively impacted her research. However, it seemed that of the people we surveyed, they would all be receptive to a discussion about implementing a policy against pornography in the library.
My opinion on this was similar to those of the students I spoke with. I am pretty neutral about pornography (obviously excepting child porn- illegal activities should not be sanctioned in the public library!) but I believe there is a time, and particularly-A PLACE for such activities. That place is not a library that is open to the public, and should be an environment in which everyone can read, research and learn comfortably. Just like you wouldn't have sex in the library, you shouldn't watch sex in the library. Nobody wants to see that! From what I learned through the survey, I would predict a positive reaction to the discussion of a porn policy in the school's library.
I actually forgot to write about whether or not people had already heard about the incident this summer. But we had much the same response, most people had not heard of it, and when we told them of it, that seemed to fire up their responses - at least a little bit. I hadn't heard of it until this class and I'm surprised that a story like this that so clearly involves the university would go unnoticed by so many.
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