Right To Privacy Even Then?

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport does not agree with the court’s ruling to let thousands of pages related to sexual abuse cases go public. “Church officials say the ruling fails to uphold the privacy and constitutional rights of all parties to lawsuits, especially when cases are sealed, and contends the disclosure of the sealed documents is barred by the religious clauses of the First Amendment.” What is in play here are documents that have been sealed since the diocese settled in 2001, there are over 12,000 pages from 23 lawsuits against 6 priest. While I have no sympathy for the individual priests, does the diocese have a right to privacy? Does the fact that it is news organizations that have been fighting for these documents to be unsealed matter? Does it matter whether or not the victims want the documents released? This situation is why I am glad that there are courts that help to make the rulings. While I know how I feel and what I believe about a large number of things I do not always know where the law falls. As a librarian I must remember to error on the side of caution. I would rather protect the rights of someone, even if I disagreed, and later be over-ruled instead of erroneously take something from someone that can never be given back, privacy.

Think… Someone knows your deepest, darkest secret and for some reason they believe they have the right to share it to the world… can you ever get your secret back if they later realize they did not have the right to share it?

Christoffersen, John. “Diocese appealing court decision.” The Newtown Bee 19 June 2009 A3 NewsBank. Goshen College Library . 19 June 2009 http://infoweb.newsbank.com.ezproxy.goshen.edu/iw-search/we/InfoWeb

Digital Divide Greater in US

Much time and energy is spent worrying about protecting youth from the evil doers that may be lurking on the internet. Protecting our youth is a worthwhile venture and I think discussion is valuable but… It is important that the discussions around the internet do not become a one topic trolley, protecting our youth from perverts. There is a part of me that would not really care if schools and public libraries blocked sites. I might be ok with this if, and only if, everyone had a computer and internet access in their home. According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, only 73% of teen in households with incomes under $30,000 use the internet while 93% of teens in households with incomes over $75,000 do. It does not take a very big leap of faith to believe the difference has to do with access. Blocking public sites only increase the digital divide between the haves and the have not’s.

A Reuter’s article says that while yes, 88% of American youth use the internet; we are lagging behind the rest of the world. Only teens from households of $75,000 or more reach the percentage of teen internet use as seen in countries such as Israel, Canada, and Czech Republic. This disturbing fact needs to be part of the discussion in order to insure that the laws that are made take all the factors into consideration.

http://www.pewinternet.org/~/media//Files/Reports/2005/PIP_Teens_Tech_July2005web.pdf.pdf

http://www.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUSTRE4AN0MR20081124

Protecting My Daughter From Online Predators

One day I found out my 12 year old set up a Myspace account behind my husband and my back. She set up the account at a sleepover and she had the account for several weeks before we found out about it. Was my daughter close to being snatched away from us? No, she was pretty safe. Why? Because she told her 15 year old sister that she set up an account and while her sister did not tell on her she did take the time to make sure that her account had very secure settings and talked to her about why it is important. We had also talked enough that my 12 year old knew to limit access.

I believe my story explains why education about social networking is so much more important than trying to mandate rules for access to social networking. While blocking social networking at public libraries and schools my keep some kids from getting accounts before their parents may want them to, some kids will manage to find a way. The best way to protect those kids is to talk, talk, and talk. The fact that I educated my older daughter helped to not only protect her but also her younger sister so much more than blocking access in public places.

Children grow up with things all around them that are potentially dangerous. We protect them from these dangers by talking about them. Instead of never letting my children cross a street I started by always holding their hand and talking about what I was doing to make sure it was safe to cross. Instead of locking up the knives in the house I told them they are sharp and can cut them and that I need to be with them when they first learn how to use them. Locking social networks away from our children is not the solution because one day they will have access to it and when they do they should know the strengths, weaknesses and potential dangers.

School Girl Circulates Banned Books

Traveling to a conference yesterday a co-worker was discussing a link her daughter had sent her. It was written by a school girl who attends a private school. Her school sent out a large list of books that they decided to ban. The student was baffled as to why the books were banned and felt the school had made the wrong decision. She brought one of the books to school to “test the ban.” Another student ended up asking if he could borrow and read the book. One thing led to another and she ended up having a personal circulating library in her locker. In the end the ban ended up promoting the banned books.

Below is the link. It may be a totally made up story but after reading the post and responses several thoughts came to mind:

Should we encourage children to participate in civil disobedience? I hope I will always encourage my child to stand up for what they believe. Is independent thought not the root of intellectual freedom?

Even though this student was trying to support intellectual freedom she too was self-censoring. She “…took care only to bring the books with literary quality.” She also limited her library to students in grades 10-12. In our attempts to do what we believe is right it is important to remember that we too have failings and not stand too proud in our actions. Self reflection is always good.

It seems as if trying to ban books is counterproductive, it entices people to see what is so bad. On the other hand librarians and book-sellers self-censoring seems to be able to “kill” a book. A librarian self-censoring may end up doing much more damage than someone trying to ban a book.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090305151758AA7dWwd