I am very against censorship, especially on the internet, but on public places are very different. If you are in a public funded library there are probably things that shouldn’t be seen. However, some of the things that were blocked in this case don’t seem like things that have to be blocked.
Things like gun magazines and art galleries don’t need to be censored on public computers. I mean, I understand why they could be. Gun magazines could be violent, and art galleries could show nudity. However, they also aren’t technically against the law.
I think that’s where the ethics come in, and that’s where it gets so incredibly muddy. Libraries should be a service to the public, and part of being a service to the public is allowing the public to chose what they do or do not see.
I think to say that it is the public’s best interest to make their decision aligns with Mill’s utilitarianism. It is in the greatest interest of the most people to have (reasonably) complete control over what they see on the internet. The people who do not want to see inappropriate material will just avoid that inappropriate material. Those that do want to see it will still be able to.
Now to say that filtering the inappropriate material is the best idea would be a good example of Kant’s Categorical Imperative. With Kant, inappropriate material would always be inappropriate, regardless of its potential value. This would mean that the correct decision in this case would always be to block the inappropriate material.
However, I don’t think that either of these is the best alternative. I think that finding Aristotle’s Mean is the best solution. I think that they should put card access on the library computers and require a library card to use them. The library card can then have information on it that says how old the person is, and grant them access based on that.
References
Christians, C. G., Facler, M., Richardson, K. B., Kreshel, P. J., & Woods, R. H., Jr. (n.d.). Media Ethics: Cases and Moral Reasoning (9th ed.). Allyn & Bacon.
Schwartz, M. (2012, April 12). Washington Library Allowed to Filter, Court Holds. Retrieved April 21, 2016, from http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2012/04/industry-news/washington-library-allowed-to-filter-court-holds/#_
Andrew Bay 