New York Public libraries have an official policy that allows the public to watch extreme, hard-core internet porn in public.

According our great city’s policy, “Electronic smut falls under the heading of free speech and the protection of the First Amendment.” Brooklyn Public Library Spokesperson Malika Granville told the New York Post, ”Customers can watch whatever they want on the computer.”

And they do. The NYP reporter approached an ”elderly porn watcher” at the Brooklyn Library who was watching a threesome, but failed to get a comment. As anyone would do, the old guy grumbled “Leave me alone, I don’t want to talk to you,” and walked away.

Conservative and religious leaders oppose this policy for obvious reasons. While the policy falls in line with a federal law stipulating that libraries that receive public funding must install filters to block obscenity and child porn, it acknowledges that anyone over 17 can simply turn the filters off. “The library cannot and does not guarantee that the filtering software will block all obscenity, child pornography or materials that are harmful to minors,” it says.

I definitely prefer New York’s lax policy over any kind of censorship, but I’ll admit that it does gross me out to imagine people of any age watching porn at a public library. It’s a safe bet that most hard-core porn watchers anywhere aren’t doing it to expand their minds, and computer keys are germy enough as they are.