Libraries are not safe havens for children!
July 18, 2007 by Laura | Trackback URI
Back in September, 2006, I noted that libraries are not the safe havens parents think they are.
Wow. Could anyone, anywhere, have predicted that unfiltered internet access in public libraries could possibly expose children to things they shouldn’t see? It seems to me that a few people did express concern about that very thing. And, shockingly enough, it turns out they were right. Go figure.
In May, Cleveland reporter Carl Monday reported on pornography and sexual activity in Cleveland area libraries. Using undercover cameras, Mike Cooper, 23, was caught viewing pornography and masturbating in an open area in a public library, near the children’s section. In the video, a woman walks right behind him while this is going on. When questioned, he first denied it, then said, “I did what I… wasn’t thinking. I just made a mistake.”
Monday asked him if he thought, “based on the fact that there are guys like you out there doing this kind of thing, do you think parents ought to be a little more careful about letting their kids be at a library alone?”
Cooper answered, “Yeah.”
A recent event in my area reminded me of it -
Kenny Ledet, 23, of Metairie approached the unidentified child Thursday about 3:45 p.m. as she browsed the children’s section of the library at 4747 W. Napoleon Ave., according to a Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office arrest report. The girl was visiting the library with her mother and a friend, who were browsing another part of the children’s section at the time, said Bert Smith, executive assistant to Parish President Aaron Broussard.
Libraries seem like a great place for kids to hang out in the summer. It’s away from the stifling heat, and the presumption of parents tends to be that they’re safe. That presumption is in error. The child in my local library was there with her mother, and her mother was near her in the children’s section, and this still happened. Few parents would allow their child to wander around the grocery store unattended while they shop. The library is no different. It’s a public place, and children need to be protected and supervised there the same way they are everywhere else.
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