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(This article courtesy of Agape Press.)
Library Defends Patrons in Internet Child Porn Incident
by Fred Jackson
In the Seattle area, the battle lines have been drawn in a controversy involving the use of library computers to get images of child pornography.
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports the facts are not in dispute. Someone in the Kent Library used a computer there to gain access to child pornography. There was a witness, a librarian was notified, and printouts of some of the images were left behind. The police were called, and a detective seized two computers.
But now the investigation has stopped because the library has launched a legal battle over the privacy of library users and the bounds of police authority. And a federal judge has ordered the police to return the computers to the library, which is under order to preserve them as potential evidence in the case.
The library maintains the police have no right to go through the computers looking for information on who was using them. But police say their priority is to protect the welfare of victimized children.
Attorneys for the Kent Police Department tell the Post-Intelligencer that some libraries estimate that 20-25% of patrons are using computers to access pornography.
MINNEAPOLIS, August 14, 2002 (LSN.ca) – While previous studies have found a correlation between exposure to violent media and physically aggressive behavior, a new, first-of-its-kind study finds that children who are exposed to violent media treat other kids with rudeness and mean behavior. The study, conducted by the National Institute on Media and the Family and researchers from Brigham Young University and St. Mary's University, was presented to the International Society for the Study of Behavioral Development Conference held August 6 in Ottawa, Canada.
The study confirms that violent media not only contribute to physical aggression, but breaks new ground in showing that the rude and crude behavior in movies and on television is mirrored in the way children who are heavy viewers of violent media treat one another.
“This study asked teachers and students about how kids in their class treated one another,” said study co-author David Walsh, Ph.D., the founder and president of the National Institute on Media and the Family. “Those questioned had no idea how much violent media the other students were exposed to. What we found is that the kids whom teachers and peers rated as the meanest were the ones who watched the most violent media.
“The study also showed that as children grew older, the more violent media they are exposed to and the more they like it,” Walsh said. “They become desensitized and watch more. Concerns about a growing culture of 'incivility' in society may be starting with our children.”
Two hundred and nineteen third, fourth, and fifth grade students and their teachers were surveyed over six-months.
To see the full press release on the study click here.
(This update courtesy of LifeSite News.)
