We were done with the Great Library Internet Porn Battle among the members of the Park Slope Parents Group (which ironically started with a branch library in Boerum Hill). Then, someone sent us this email last night, which touches on some interesting angles of the debate. The writer of the email calls the discussion “a bit baffling and a little annoying” and says the tone of the discussion is “Park Slope Parental Entitlement at its finest.” (The porn debate, by the way, hit Channel 4 News last night.) Here it is:

This discussion may be interesting to some, but I have to say I find it a bit baffling and a little annoying in the most stereotypical PSP way. We are bound for NY Mag, indeed.

First, I just wanted to mention that there are occasionally reasons that a person may be looking at porn other than a desire for arousal. For example, a friend was given an assignment in graduate school to do something that made her uncomfortable and online porn was one of the suggestions given.

Second, I want to reiterate the fact that internet filtering is extremely imperfect. As an example, I was unable to look at the website for childbirth classes at Realbirth because of an internet filter. But I mention that only to support the comment that the use of filters on computers for teens leads to the exclusion of information to which they really need access. That’s for me to take up with the federal government, I suppose.

If the placement of the computers for adults is upsetting to you, perhaps you can calmly communicate this to the library or our new liaison.

If you are just posting to complain about porn’s existence near your children… why? I hope no one thinks that some angry parents are going to change the policies of the American Library Association, an organization that stands solidly against censorship and tries to protect you from the slippery slope some others have mentioned.

There are parents who are as horrified by Harry Potter as you are by porn. There are the opponents to the gay penguin book mentioned earlier. There are parents who believe comic books are trash and should be kept far from their kids. There are parents who believe that reading Junie B. Jones books will permanently stunt their children’s vocabulary. There is plenty of moral outrage to go around. Surely any reasonable person can see that those calling for censorship of books or materials you love are just as serious and upset as you. Everyone has a personal line that they think shouldn’t be crossed. To think that we get to dictate that line for others leads to big problems.

We live in a big city and our kids are going to see all sorts of things we’d prefer they did not, sometimes at ages more tender than we would like. The first time I took him to the swings, my baby saw a mother spank her daughter hard in the playground for crying when it was time to leave. Last month, we saw a man violently kick his dog with his skates and then throw it down on the steps and choke it when it had done nothing except fail to keep up on the leash as he skated. Frankly, both of those things are far more hideous to me than a glimpse of porn on a library computer from which I can turn away.

The tone of some of the emails in this discussion is Park Slope Parental Entitlement at its finest. Don’t assume all of us share your position.