A man has been arrested after he was observed attempting to download child pornography using a public computer at a Markham library.
Staff members at the Unionville branch of the Markham Public Library, located near Kennedy Road and Regional Road 7, were shocked when they discovered the man on Friday.
A staff member alerted police who arrested the man and seized a number of compact discs and a library computer.
Markham Libraries CEO Catherine Bliss says staff followed the proper Internet protocol.
"We have staff who are really well trained, who are very confident in how to handle circumstances and they did so in this case," Bliss said on Monday.
Markham library patrons can only access public computers using a library card, which monitors all sites they visit. Library cards are only granted if photo identification is shown.
Children and adults access computers in separate rooms at the library. The children's computers have content filters but the adult computers do not.
Some patrons believe installing content filters to the adult computers would be too limiting.
"The purpose of the library is really to be a resource and the resource can be easily abused, but if you put too many filters on it, it takes away from its (the library's) potential," one library patron said Monday.
David Pattison, 21, of Markham is charged with accessing child pornography and possessing child pornography.
He is scheduled to appear in Newmarket court Sept. 19.
With a report from CTV's Roger Petersen
