The Ottawa Public Library is no longer defending its “intellectual freedom” policy when it comes to watching pornography at its branches.

“So overly violent content, sexual overt images – those kinds of things, we are going to ask you to refrain from doing so in public and if you do that we will be asking you to turn off or shut down your computer,” said Ottawa Public Library, CEO Danielle McDonald.

McDonald said she believes this is a solution that will satisfy the public after massive backlash poured in from across the country last week.

It was an Ottawa mom who voiced concerns after her daughters, 11 and 13, caught a man watching explicit material online. Jennifer St. Pierre said the man was watching graphic pornography at the Greenboro District Library.

When the family complained, they learned watchers were protected by the library’s stance on intellectual freedom, prior to the policy being changed.

“The best word to use in confused – not sure what they were seeing,” St. Pierre said of the experience.

The mom of two is happy changes have been implemented, but feels more could be done. She said asking a person to shut down after they have been noticed watching pornography does not stop a child from being exposed.

“If they can’t do firewalls, why aren’t the monitors facing a wall, why don’t they have an 18 and over section where you can sit and watch whatever content,” she said. “As people in society they should know what might be offensive to other people, whether it might be pornography, where it might be violence.”

Library officials said they do not feel filtering is the best practice. Instead, if a person refuses to close their computer when asked, they will be told to leave the library.

“You look at Vancouver, Calgary, Gatineau, Aurora…these are cities that already have this practice in place and this evolved over time,” said Ottawa Councillor Tim Tierney

A statement is being issued to city council notifying them of the change in practice effective immediately.

However; it may take some time to implement. The Ottawa Public Library has 650 staff at 33 branches across the city.