Question

COMPUTER ETHICS

You are in charge of the computers at a large, inner-city library. Most of the people who live in the neighborhood do not have a computer at home. They go to the library when they want to access the Internet. About two-thirds of the people surfing the Web on the library’s computers are adults, and others are school-going children of all ages.

You have been requested to install filtering software that would block Web sites containing various kinds of material deemed inappropriate for children. You have observed this software in action and know that it also blocks many sites that adults might legitimately want to visit.

You have now been asked to attend a town hall meeting to defend your response.

What would be your public response to the parent of a fifth grader? What would be your response to the graduate student researching adult art?

Answer 1

Absolutely I will install the filtering software on the computers. What I can do so that if any mature wants to visit those sites that are jammed is to disable the filtering software in ‘his/her’ computer.

If this does not work, then I do not have any extra option but to tell those who needs to access it that this is a library.

For safety, they have to agreement with the fact that there are also teen-agers who are using the computers at the library and when they see the matures viewing websites that are unsuitable for them, they boldness try it also.