In early February, a pair of 12-year-old girls sat down at a computer terminal in Bethel Park Library to review some schoolwork. At the same time, a man sitting next to them viewed nude women wrestling on a Yahoo chat room.

The man, Scott Rickenbach, 38, was charged with disorderly conduct and will appear before District Judge Robert C. Wyda for a hearing tomorrow morning.

Meanwhile, staff members at the library have upgraded their computer filters to block all chat rooms and have set aside certain computers for children 17 and younger.

"We do take our commitment to public safety very seriously," said Cheryl Napsha, the library's director.

But Allegheny County Councilman Vince Gastgeb, R-Bethel Park, hopes libraries across the county will adopt even stricter measures to prevent similar incidents. He wants the eiNetwork, the computer network that links the 44 public library systems of the Allegheny County Library Association, to use filters capable of blocking all pornographic or inappropriate material found on the Web.

At the County Council meeting on March 15, Gastgeb introduced a resolution that would deny county funding to the eiNetwork if the filters are not maintained.

"I don't want any public funding going to any library until we know these filters work," Gastgeb said.

All libraries that accept funds from the federal government are already required to block access to certain Web sites under the Children's Internet Protection Act, a federal law passed in 2000.

"We're in full compliance with both state and federal regulations," said Marilyn Jenkins, executive director of ACLA. "The libraries go out of their way to protect children."

The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh uses NetSweeper filtering software that is updated on a regular basis.

But even the most sophisticated computer filters are far from perfect, Jenkins said, and designers of pornographic Web sites are always finding new ways to bypass digital obstacles hampering their work.

"We'd certainly be more than happy to talk with County Council about this," Jenkins said.

Viewing pornographic material is not illegal for someone older than 17, and library staff can remove a filter when an adult patron makes such a request.

"We respect the First Amendment," said Lane Cigna, communications manager for the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. "If you are an adult, you may ask a library staff member to disable the filter."

Even without the filter, it is still illegal for a library patron to view certain material, such as child pornography.

Gastgeb, however, wants to block all indecent material, such as the chat room viewed at Bethel Park Library, making sure "nobody could access the sites."

If someone does access those sites, "we need to know," he said.

Gastgeb's resolution calls for libraries to file a report with the county when their computer systems don't stop certain material.

Currently, the county does not provide any direct annual funds to the eiNetwork, Jenkins said. Instead, about $2.3 million comes from the county's Regional Asset District, which, under state law, can provide money for libraries and other cultural institutions using county sales tax revenue.

Gastgeb's resolution will soon go before council's public safety committee, and the councilman said he would try to block RAD's funds from reaching the libraries if he felt such an action was necessary.

"In a library, there's a presumption of safety for minors," he said.