Child porn in open access at Swedish National Library
Published: 22 April, 2009, 10:19
Sweden’s legacy of lax attitudes towards sex has come back to haunt the country’s National Library, which has been found to house large quantities of child pornography in its collection.










About 15 years ago while working for a prestigious women's college library, I responded to an email (posted by the head librarian) concerning a new law supported by then President Clinton that was designed to prevent children from accessing porn through library computers. At the time my four kids were all very young. No problem, right? If Bill Clinton, of all people, was willing to draw a line, and support this, what could be so threatening about it. We knew he wasn't a prude, and this was before the Lewinsky scandal broke. Within an hour I received a response directed to the entire library staff demanding my immediate resignation for having the gall to support any form of censorship, however reasonable. The man calling for my head hailed from no less than from that one-time haven of free-speech and tolerance itself, GERMANY. Nevertheless, the incident shook up the rest of the staff. Ironically enough, my wannabe-executioner returned to his Fatherland before I eventually was laid off (for different reasons.) But the very fact that few could see the inherent danger of letting child porn go unwatched and unregulated for the sake of maintaining some near mystical notion of full free expression and ability to see whatever he or she wanted was terribly upsetting. Should any nation allow, for example, security breaches simply by letting anybody look at super-secret classified information about nuclear weaponry? You'd like to think "of course not." Academia is a theme park, and all libraries are but sub-parks in the mindsets that create them to be so removed from reality. Sweden's very embarrassed as it should be: She's reaping the whirlwind she sowed in her own home.