EDITORIAL : FILTER THIS.

COUNCILMAN Mikey Feuer didn't like your children reading Marlboro Man billboards near schools, playgrounds and neighborhood hangouts. How obscene and potentially thought-controlling.

But he seems to have no such concerns about our children viewing pornography on the Internet in public libraries, as long as an adult is around to explain things to them.

Feuer led the City Council last week to oppose a state proposal requiring filters on public library computers.

Instead, he supports a convoluted plan that creates a whole new bureaucracy to monitor computers in public libraries.

Feuer's objection was a practical one, he said. He doubted a measure by Sen. Joe Baca, D-San Bernardino, aimed at weeding out Internet sites with sexually provocative material is practical because sharp kids can bypass filters - as if sharp kids can't buy a pack of cigarettes without a billboard overhead.

Feuer's answer is to wait for a cumbersome system of employing adults to stand over the shoulder of every child on a public library computer to watch over where they go in cyberspace.

Councilman Nate Holden was right, believe it or not, when he said the city should have backed the state law proposal as a way to control access to the material and respond to parental concerns about easy access to pornography.

``Parents should have a say in what their children see,'' Holden said.

But the City Council didn't buy it. Cigarettes on billboards are dangerous but pornography on the Internet is healthy?

Put a filter on it.