Porn in the lab: A photo illustration

College is a time for young adults to experience many different freedoms high schools don’t offer, one of them being able to browse the Internet without a filtering system.

None of the Pitt campuses have a filtering system on their Internet, but other schools like St. Vincent College do.

Jim Towey, the president of St. Vincent, installed a filtering system in 2006 that restricts the viewing of pornographic and gambling Web sites.

“I can see good things to either position. I think in a private Catholic school, filtering sites is appropriate. However, the University of Pittsburgh has always viewed that as in the domain of academic freedom.” said Bill Martin, director of computing services and telecommunications.

Pitt-Greensburg has a general policy for faculty, staff, and students regarding what is acceptable for viewing online. University computer and Internet usage is only to be used for instructional, educational, and administrative purposes. The general code of conduct prohibits using the computers and internet for harassment, inappropriate sites that contain pornography, online gambling, and other offenses such as stealing passwords.

There has been recent speculation some students are looking at pornographic material in the computer lab. No one has been caught doing it.

“I would assume that if people were looking at inappropriate things they would do it in their rooms, but if I saw it here I would probably just ask them to stop,” Kim Kesselring, a freshman work-study in McKenna Hall, said.

According to administration in McKenna Hall, the students of Pitt-Greensburg are doing well in the proper use of their computer and Internet freedom. The most common offense is the sharing of copyrighted files, which can be punished either by the university or by the recording industry.

“We’ve had a case or two of email harassment, but it’s been a while since we had any real issues concerning inappropriate use of the computers,” Martin said.

A filtering system is not in the works to be placed in the University of Pittsburgh computer system any time soon, and Martin doubts it ever will be.

“It would only happen if it was done with the purpose of adding quality to the service. The University of Pittsburgh always wants to present itself as open,” he said.