Livingston Councilman hires private investigator to see if they can access porn on public library computers

LIVINGSTON PARISH, La. (WAFB) - A Livingston Parish Councilman hired a private investigator to see if they could access explicit content or porn on parish library computers.

Councilman Garry Talbert says he wanted to find out for himself if the computers were as safe for children to use, as advertised by library officials.

“I paid with my personal money, not campaign money, my money,” said Councilman Garry Talbert, District 2.

He says the private investigator captured nearly an hour’s worth of body camera footage.

“How safe are the computers, what is going on. There are parents who have talked about their kids accessing porn at the library. Let’s figure out how they’re doing it, if we supposedly have it blocked,” said Councilman Talbert.

Talbert says the private investigator found the technology was doing the bare minimum to block access to porn through third party sites..

“We broke library rules by proving that pornography was accessible to kids,” said Talbert.

Talbert stated these findings at a parish council meeting on February 9.

In a letter posted to Facebook, Livingston Parish Library Director Giovanni Tairov says, “While using the library’s content filtering system blocked the initial attempts, the investigator found a backdoor to break through the library’s firewall and view inappropriate content.”

“And I guess what brought it to a head, is that the Attorney General had just issued a report. It’s not my desire to ban books, it’s not his desire to ban books, but we’re not interested in having this material readily available without parental consent,” said Talbert.

In the letter, library officials say that they use a top tier content filtering system to make sure that kids are not able to access that type of material. But they realize that no system is completely perfect.

“Watson is not as woke as New York City,” said Talbert.

In a statement to WAFB, Library Director Giovanni Tairov said, “Livingston Parish Library values our relationship with the community. Patrons of all ages and walks of life rely on the library’s technology for homework, research, career-building, and entertainment daily. We take serious measures to ensure that access to online resources is protected from harmful content. The library never has and will never allow access to pornographic materials online. Nor do we have pornographic materials in our collection. Deliberate circumvention of the content filtering system will always result in a ban from the library.”

Councilman Talbert says children these days are too savvy when it comes to technology, and is hopeful for a little more oversight on third party sites on public library computers.

“I’m not their parent, so I can’t look at what they get on their phones, I am a parish councilman and the library falls under our jurisdiction. And at that point, I feel like I can reach out, make sure that we’re doing all we can do, to make sure the environment’s safe for our children to go into,” said Talbert.

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