'MySpace' Won't Be in Cyberspace at Wake Libraries

Raleigh, N.C. — As of March 1, MySpace.com will no longer be on the reading list at Wake County libraries.

Library leaders are putting a block on the popular social-networking Web site because, they say, some people have used it to access pornographic sites and children have accidentally seen what they found.

There also is a question about criminal activity involving MySpace.com accounts.

“They've been bringing up some graphic pornographic sites on our PCs that children have inadvertently seen, and we just can't tolerate that,” said Libraries Director Thomas L. Moore. “It's become an attractive nuisance.”

The computers at all Wake County Public Libraries are outfitted with filters to block graphic and sexually explicit Web sites. It appears, however, that some people have been trying to get around the system by using MySpace.com.

Sources say two teens arrested in connection with the murder of a Wendell woman were banned from one Wake County library branch. It turned out that they were using the library's computers to access their MySpace.com accounts, which had pictures of them flashing gang symbols.

Michael Mueller, who was at a library branch with his son Wednesday, said he understands the concerns, but he believes a better answer is for parents to log more miles in their children's Internet world.

The correct solution, Mueller suggested, is “not to have the computer in the child's room and to have the computer with parental eyes all the time.”