Rick Woodbury works on a computer at the Oro Valley Public Library, which also has Wi-Fi for people with their own laptops. The Town Council was to consider installing filters to block pornographic sites.

Jim Davis / Arizona Daily Star

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The Oro Valley Town Council was scheduled Wednesday night to consider a policy that, if approved, would require the Oro Valley Public Library to filter all Internet access for pornography — a practice that some say limits the public's right to information.

Vice Mayor Terry Parish, who asked the Town Council to consider the proposed policy, said filtering Internet access for pornography protects minors.

Under the policy that's been in effect, Oro Valley Public Library gives adults age 18 and older the choice of filtered or unfiltered Internet access on its general use computers.

"I was surprised at how lax our policy is," Parish said. "We could do a better job protecting our youth," he said.

General use computers are located in the main area of the library and provide adult library card holders access to the Internet.

"Individuals who use or abuse their unrestricted access to the Internet are in full viewing proximity of those who would find it offensive and/or harmful," wrote community development director Brent Sinclair and managing librarian Mary Hartz-Musgrave in a memo.

Groups advocating freedom of information, such as the American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom, say filters are not the answer to protecting children from pornography. They also say filters block constitutionally protected speech in the process.

"Filtering isn't just going to make these things go away. It's putting a Band-Aid on the whole thing," said Erin Byrne, the Office for Intellectual Freedom's assistant director. The office is based in Chicago.

"We really feel that it's up to parents to keep an eye on kids, (at libraries) and if kids are there by themselves, it's parents' role to teach kids what's acceptable," she said.

In 2005, Oro Valley library patrons reported to the staff three incidents of children noticing adults looking at pornographic Web sites, Hartz-Musgrave said.

"In some instances, staff has asked individuals to leave the library because of their conduct on the computer," she and Sinclair wrote.

But that happened before the Tucson Pima-Public Library system installed privacy screens on the computers, according to Hartz-Musgrave.

Another concern fueling the filtering issue is that a minor could borrow an adult's library card and use it to obtain unfiltered access to the Internet on the library's general use computers, she said.

Library computers have software that determines a computer user's level of access to the Internet by the age of the person who owns the library card used to reserve the computer.

Based on these and other concerns, "there's a lot of risk in letting pornography on your general use computers," Parish said.

But the Office for Intellectual Freedom says filters may block information that people need.

"Studies have shown the filters block many sites. (A filter) under-blocks and over-blocks," Byrne said. "We really encourage libraries to use policies that provide public access to information."