by Roxana Robinson

About the author: Roxana Robinson is the author of the short-story collections A Glimpse of Scarlet and Asking for Love and the novel This Is My Daughter.

A 5-year-old is not ready to confront the world. This should be obvious, but it doesn’t seem that way to many free-speech advocates, who are angry that some libraries around the country have installed software on their computers to block out Internet material that’s unsuitable for children.

The objections are coming from some usual sources: the American Civil Liberties Union, for example, and Web publishers. But even the American Library Association has opposed the use of filtering software.

The Librarian’s Role

Traditionally, the library has been a safe place for children. And librarians have long been the guardians of public virtue...