dira | Everybody's free (to watch porn on public computers)

So, yesterday I noticed a guy watching porn on one of the public computers in my library. He had it open in a small window on one side of the screen, and seemed to be playing something like minesweeper beside it. I probably wouldn't have noticed, but it was a closeup and there was a dramatic skin tone contrast and, y'know. The section of my brain wired for porn is very, very busy.

I was going to just ignore it - who am I to deny somebody their porn? Hadn't I, in my student days, read porn on those very computers? - but there was a girl student sitting at the next station who, I thought, might be uncomfortable, so it was probably my duty as a library employee to tell someone what was going on. I went and told the lady working the reference desk, who thanked me, and then I went back to working in my little cave, well removed from patrons.

When I mentioned it to

fairmer, she remarked that in her library, they weren't allowed to do anything unless someone complained about the porn-viewing, but I figured that since I had complained (well, observed, anyway) maybe it counted.

This morning, the lady who'd been working reference updated me - apparently, everybody's free to watch porn on public computers and, in the case of a complaint, the complainer is to be relocated to somewhere where the porn won't bother them. Viva la intellectual freedom and unfiltered internet access! I think I'm irritated by this mainly because I spent a lot of time feeling vaguely guilty reading NC-17 fic (it wasn't even real porn, let alone video) when I was, apparently, well within my rights. All the same, I gotta think sitting next to some library creep who's watching porn would be a more traumatic Welcome to the Grownup World experience than, say, walking back and forth past the Safe Sex Store on a daily basis. But maybe I am, secretly, a prude.