Scoop has an Ethical Paywall
Work smarter with a Pro licence Learn More

Local Govt | National News Video | Parliament Headlines | Politics Headlines | Search

 

Auckland Council statement on library WiFi use

Media advisory
8 July 2015


Auckland Council statement on library WiFi use

There has been media coverage today about people being able to view objectionable material through Auckland Council’s free WiFi service at Auckland Libraries.

Any user of our WiFi services must accept our terms and conditions, which is asked for whenever a user accesses the WiFi. One of these conditions is that they will not use the WiFi to view objectionable material.

Please see the full statement below, attributed to Darryl Soljan, Manager Customer Experience, North & West Libraries:

Users of Auckland Libraries' free Wi-Fi agree to our terms and conditions prior to using the service for the first time. One of the terms and conditions is that they will not use the free Wi-Fi to view objectionable material.

At Auckland Libraries we take our duty to protect the public from objectionable material very seriously. Devonport Library operates under the same policies and guidelines as the rest of the Auckland public library network to comply with the Films, Videos, and Publications Classification Act. This Act includes material viewable over the internet.

Under this Act, a publication is objectionable if it describes, depicts, expresses, or otherwise deals with matters such as sex, horror, crime, cruelty, or violence in such a manner that the availability of the publication is likely to be injurious to the public good.

In line with industry best practice, our blocking and filtering software is regularly updated to protect the public from objectionable material. As with all such software globally, nothing is 100% foolproof. There are times when we are contacted by our staff or the public to unblock a site that may contain a word or a tag that means a perfectly benign and acceptable website has been blocked by the software.

Advertisement - scroll to continue reading

Are you getting our free newsletter?

Subscribe to Scoop’s 'The Catch Up' our free weekly newsletter sent to your inbox every Monday with stories from across our network.

Conversely, on occasions when the filter has not detected a cleverly disguised site that contains objectionable material and we have been advised by public or staff, we manually add that site to those to be blocked.

Library staff will intervene if they notice objectionable content being viewed, or if customers alert them to such use.

If you go to a search engine and use specific search parameters, images of objectionable material may be seen on the search engine's website. However, should you click on those images in order to go to the respective website, our web filtering would attempt to enforce compliance with the Films, Videos, and Publications Classification Act.

Because these images are viewed on the search engine website, the only way to prevent any situation involving objectionable material would be to blacklist the search engine entirely. This would largely prevent access to the internet and disadvantage a huge number of our customers and contravene the New Zealand Bill of Rights, Paragraph 14, Freedom of expression:

“Everyone has the right to freedom of expression, including the freedom to seek, receive, and impart information and opinions of any kind in any form.”


Auckland Libraries’ free WiFi platform is part of the same AucklandOn platform (with the same T&C’s) which the council provides at various hotspots around Auckland.

Ends

© Scoop Media

Advertisement - scroll to continue reading
 
 
 
Parliament Headlines | Politics Headlines | Regional Headlines


Gordon Campbell: On The US Opposition To Mortgage Interest Deductibility For Landlords


Should landlords be able to deduct the interest on the loans they take out to bankroll their property speculation? The US Senate Budget Committee and Bloomberg News don't think this is a good idea, for reasons set out below. Regardless, our coalition government has been burning through a ton of political capital by giving landlords a huge $2.9 billion tax break via interest deductibility, while still preaching the need for austerity to the disabled, and to everyone else...
More


 
 

Government: Concerns Conveyed To China Over Cyber Activity
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. “The Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity... More

ALSO:


Government: GDP Decline Reinforces Government’s Fiscal Plan

Declining GDP for the December quarter reinforces the importance of restoring fiscal discipline to public spending and driving more economic growth, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says... More

ALSO:


Government: Humanitarian Support For Gaza & West Bank

Winston Peters has announced NZ is providing a further $5M to respond to the extreme humanitarian need in Gaza and the West Bank. “The impact of the Israel-Hamas conflict on civilians is absolutely appalling," he said... More


Government: New High Court Judge Appointed

Judith Collins has announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister Jason Scott McHerron as a High Court Judge. Justice McHerron graduated from the University of Otago with a BA in English Literature in 1994 and an LLB in 1996... More

 
 
 
 
 
 

LATEST HEADLINES

  • PARLIAMENT
  • POLITICS
  • REGIONAL
 
 

InfoPages News Channels


 
 
 
 

Join Our Free Newsletter

Subscribe to Scoop’s 'The Catch Up' our free weekly newsletter sent to your inbox every Monday with stories from across our network.