Social problems evolve from freeway web access

The Far North District Council's excursion into free public internet access to the worldwide web expressway has struck some speed wobbles.

The popularity of the service available through the district's public library network has grown dramatically since the service was introduced two years ago.

An average of over 5300 sessions are now being booked each month at the six libraries offering the free internet and wireless services and the number of people accessing libraries has also increased substantially.

But the growth in demand has brought with it new social problems which, coupled with user feedback since the service was introduced, has prompted a rethink of the way the service is provided and how it will be managed going forward.

The service was first introduced under a partnership arrangement with the Aoteroa People's Network Kaharoa (APNK) and was designed to provide access to educational and research opportunities for those in the community unable to afford either home computers or internet access costs.

Typical users were students seeking study and educational opportunities, small businesses and job seekers. But in recent times the demand has moved from education and research objectives to the rapidly expanding social networking arena.

 Predominant users in the Far North fall into the 15 -25 years age group with peak use occurring just outside school hours.

"It's all good and the user demographics fit comfortably with the objectives set out in the APN mandate to open up free internet and fast broadband access to a wider range of people. However in recent weeks there have been a number of incidents which have undermined traditional library use," council Chief Executive David Edmunds says.

 

"A minority of secondary school age users appear determined to ignore the privilege of a free service and abuse the system to the detriment of others. This has included both verbal and physical abuse of library staff and squabbles which on at least two occasions has led to police intervention.

"On another plateau, parents either honing their web social networking skills or taking the opportunity for child-free shopping, are using the service as an alternate crèche or child-minding facility creating conflict with traditional library users.

"These incidents are putting at risk the integrity of both the internet and other library services," Mr Edmunds says.

He said most of the issues arising related to the time constraints on sessions which had been put in place to ensure the availability of the service was equally shared by as many as possible.

"Ideally we would like to think that parents who know their children are using the libraries for web access will have a word with them and get the message across that free access is a privilege which should not be abused and that they should show respect for other library users and the library environment.

"If the problems being recently experienced persist, the council may be forced to either toughen up access rules- which would be counter productive- or alternately consider withdrawing the service and denying those in genuine need of what is clearly an increasingly popular community facility.

"In the interim we are reviewing management protocols to establish whether there may be less disruptive ways available to get on top of what has become something of a social issue," he says.