TORONTO

Checking out online pornography in the Toronto Public Library should be out of circulation, the mayor says.

John Tory seemed shocked to learn Thursday that porn can be viewed on library computers.

“These are publicly financed computers in publicly financed buildings ... and publicly financed Internet access,” Tory said. “I found it hard to believe when I first heard about this this morning that our policies — meaning the library board and the city — would allow people to in any way, shape or form look at pornography on publicly financed computers paid for by the taxpayers with publicly financed Internet access.

“All I can say is I will look into it.”

Library officials confirmed they don’t slap Internet filters on computers available for adults to use in library branches.

“There is no perfect filter,” TPL communications manager Ana-Maria Critchley told the Toronto Sun. “But if staff have grounds to suspect that someone is watching illegal material such as child pornography, the same as if they’re suspecting anything else illegal going on at the library, (they) report it to the police right away.

But, Critchley pointed out, sexual imagery is not illegal.

“We’re the public library, we have to offer access to a very wide range of information, the widest range of information — whether it is online or in our books,” she said.

If someone in the library branches sees someone viewing something that is making them uncomfortable, they should talk to a staff member who are all trained in the library’s rules of conduct, Critchley said.

The library has more than 6.5 million annual uses on 1,800 computers with Internet access and there are very few incidents, she said.

“They will talk to the person and they will let them know that whatever they are viewing is making other people uncomfortable and generally people will turn it off,” Critchley said.