Problem of porn

The National Library and Information Service has taken steps to ensure that all Internet "sites containing pornographic material are blocked for use" at its libraries. This is, of course, a necessary action since it removes the temptation and the possibility from students, young people and even adults to use the library computers to gain access to this kind of depravity. There is no need for us to emphasise the moral damage that pornography does to every society, particularly its young people, and already an abundance of this lewd material is channelled into our homes through a number of satellite stations which places a serious responsibility on parents. The decision by NALIS is critical also because the National Library in Port-of-Spain has become a popular liming place for students particularly on a Friday afternoon, when most of them gather there not to undertake serious study and research, but rather to "socialise" among themselves.

As one teenager proclaimed recently, it's the place where boys meet girls and girls meet boys. While we can have no objection in principle to such gatherings we must wonder whether the strength of the Library's security force is up to the task of overseeing these large crowds of young people on its premises and ensuring that they can contain any outbreaks of rowdiness among the students who come from different areas of the city. As much as it distresses us, we cannot overlook the violence that takes place in our schools and the reports of students engaging in sexual activity in and outside the school premises. It seems unfortunate that while the advance of communications technology has improved our lives in so many ways, it is also being abused to demoralise us. The ease with which pornographic material has been available for access to persons with computer Internet services has created a children's market for porn, and the need for many parents to be vigilant with respect to their children's choice of internet sites. Indeed, as technology takes us forward in material terms, it opens the way for perverts to threaten our society's moral well being. A recent claim that schoolchildren had viewed pornographic material on a computer at the Diego Martin Pubic Libary has been firmly denied after careful investigations showed no computer usage for any kind of prohibited activity.

In this respect the measures taken by NALIS are reassuring but we are also dismayed by reports of the conduct of some students who, instead of appreciating the excellent facilities for study and research provided by the National Library, have actually been misusing and vandalising its computers. Some of the damage they have caused, we understand, has resulted in the breakdown of a number of computers. We remember when free secondary education was introduced in TT many years ago, one school of thought held that the opportunity would not be valued or appreciated by those receiving it because it was free. Whether or not that view has been substantiated may be a matter for debate, but the problems at the National Library may well provoke the pessimists into renewing their point about providing such  "freeness." What ever the case, however, NALIS needs to beef up its protective security. Computers are expensive equipment and the cost of repairs could be high. For whatever it's worth, parents and teachers should also attempt to inculcate into our children a spirit of patriotism, love for their country  and an appreciation of the opportunities it provides for their own personal development.