[Publib] Minimum Age for Computer Use?

Wed Sep 5 11:08:50 EDT 2007

We have an age limit of 12 on our internet computers. Any younger has to be
accompanied by an adult sitting at the same computer as the child. We also
have 6 children's computers on our kids floor that have games on them with
only access to Live Homework Help & the library website. One of the things
that our policy states (and that really needs to be re-written!) is that our
internet is for educational use only. If we stuck to that policy, we would
most likely lose 95% of our clientele, as the biggest majority of use is
Myspace, YouTube & Facebook!

Terry Caudle

Hopkins County - Madisonville Public Library

library at vci.net

www.publiclibrary.org

From: publib-bounces at webjunction.org [mailto:publib-bounces at webjunction.org]
On Behalf Of Catherine Adair
Sent: Tuesday, September 04, 2007 7:36 PM
To: publib at webjunction.org
Subject: [Publib] Minimum Age for Computer Use?

After all of the discussion about MySpace and YouTube, I have another
question about internet use in libraries.  Does anyone out there have an
internet policy with a minimum age requirement for computer use?  Our
current policy allows kids under the age of 18 to go online with a signed
parental permission slip.  However, with the advent of Webkins, we've
noticed that our clientele is getting younger and younger (sometimes two or
three years old).  We're a small library, so unfortunately we don't have
separate computers for kids.  We currently have only seven public computers,
all of which are frequently monopolized by the under-ten crowd.

We're considering a minimum age requirement to address a few different
problems.  The main issue lies with parents who leave their kids
unsupervised in the computer/reference room.  I'm often the only adult in
there, and if I'm off at lunch, it's unattended (I came back the other day
to find a five year old completely alone in the room).  Our behavior policy
covers unaccompanied children, but parents pay little attention to this no
matter how often we remind them about it.  I'm particularly concerned
because of how young the kids are and how casual the parents are about
leaving them alone.  In this circumstance, I'm really more worried about
"stranger danger" than I am about the keyboards being pounded and printer
paper being wasted.  What's a librarian to do?

Is it wrong of me to consider an age restriction?  Enforcing our behavior
policy (short of calling the police to report abandoned children) has proven
futile.  Until we're able to afford more computers for the kids, I'm not
sure what else to do.  I'd love to hear about other policies that address
this issue.

Thanks for your help!

Catherine Adair Williams

Senior Librarian

Verona Public Library

Verona, NJ

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