Fallout Follows I-Team Library Investigation

Nov. 29 - KGO (KGO) -- The library community is buzzing about an I-Team investigation that exposed sex crimes and pornography in the Bay Area's main libraries. San Jose's mayor-elect is pledging to take action after seeing the report.

The report has touched a nerve. In the past two days, we've been getting e-mail from outraged parents and library staff who are glad we finally told the story. This has been one of those secrets that no one wanted to talk about.

Chuck Reed, San Jose Mayor-elect: "It may not be a crime, but it's not something we have to tolerate."

We played our investigation on our video player on abc7news.com for San Jose Mayor-elect Chuck Reed.

We found problems at the Martin Luther King main library, especially pornography. They have no rule against viewing photographs or full-screen sex videos from Internet sites, even with children nearby.

Police records and surveillance tapes show several men have been arrested in the past year for viewing porn out in the open and performing lewd acts.

Now Reed says one of his first tasks when he takes over as mayor will be to launch his own investigation into the issue, and consider moving the library's computers.

Chuck Reed, San Jose Mayor-elect: "That would be important to try to have a setup that makes it more difficult for bad things to happen and makes it easier for our librarians to correct them when they do."

Since the I-Team story aired Wednesday, we've received several e-mails from staff at the library who say they don't like being exposed to porn, especially the child porn we spotted, on a daily basis and that it's a hostile work environment.

Erik Larsen, S.J. City Employees Union President: "It is uncomfortable for employees to be in that position."

The city employees union president says it's especially disturbing because so many jobs have been cut since the dot-com bust. The library is counting on 15 and 16-year-old pages to do a lot of the work, and they're having to deal with the porn.

Erik Larsen, S.J. City Employees Union President: "You can't have young folks under the age of 18 monitoring children or adults when it comes to this type of issue with pornography."

In our investigation Wednesday, chief librarian Jane Light defended access to Internet porn as a matter of free speech.

Jane Light, San Jose librarian: "If anyone objects, doesn't like that because they're seeing something they don't want to see, they just let us know and the customer will be required to place a screen on their screen. That means people can't see it from the side."

But take a look at the privacy screens. They block the view if you're sitting next to the computer. But if you move back just a bit, the picture's clear again.

Mayor-elect Reed sees porn and the right to free speech differently than the chief librarian.

Chuck Reed, San Jose Mayor-elect: "There are limits on free speech. There's no constitutional right that's absolute and free speech is not an absolute right. No one has a right to expose other people to pornography."

Forty percent of the public libraries in this country use some sort of filters on their computers to limit access to pornography -- but not San Jose. The American Civil Liberties Union has fought filters in libraries.

Nicole Ozer, ACLU Technology Policy Director: "Just like we don't censor the types of books that we have in the library, we don't censor the type of information that's available on the Internet sites in the library."

The ACLU's technology policy director says the key is an attentive staff and attentive parents.

Nicole Ozer, ACLU Technology Policy Director: "Just like you wouldn't want your child to necessarily be able to look at any book that's on the stack, you might want to accompany them and be sure that they're looking at the right kind of books in the library, that they're in the right place in the library."

And the right kind of websites. Our investigation also showed there have been at least 10 cases of child molestation or other sex crimes involving kids over the past year at the San Jose main library.

The I-Team tried to reach San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom today about the problems we found at his city's main library. His staff did not return our phone calls or e-mail requesting an interview.

Have a tip on this or another investigation? E-mail the ABC7 I-Team or call 1-888-40-I-TEAM.

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