Gwinnett County library workers will be able to capture browsing histories from library computers and call police on suspected child pornography viewers under an Internet safety policy approved Monday.

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The new policy comes six months after a Lawrenceville woman complained to library employees about seeing a man watching pornographic video at the Collins Hill branch.

At the time, Ruth Hardy said, library employees told her they couldn't intervene.

The new policy doesn't address everything she would have liked — such as more direct monitoring of library computers by staff — but it is a start toward keeping people from using the computers to view obscene material, Hardy said.

"I am pleased that they are taking an effort to prevent it," she said.

The new policy instructs staff members to respond with "prompt and appropriate action" to complaints that someone is viewing obscene or harmful material.

The responses include counseling users on appropriate Internet usage for less serious situations, ordering users to stop viewing obscene materials, or calling police and capturing the computer's browsing history as possible evidence in the case of child pornography.

It also raises the age at which library users are allowed unfiltered access to the Internet to 18 to conform with state law. The previous policy allowed such access to 17-year-olds.

Claire Hertzler, regional director of the National Coalition for the Protection of Children and Families, said the new policy was an "incremental" step in the right direction.

"A lot of the pornographers, child predators and now the gangs are going to the library because they know they won't be tracked," she said.

Board member Phyllis Oxendine said the policy will surely change in coming years as the Internet changes.

"This is an ongoing process," she said. "As the Internet changes and evolves, we will be evolving," she said.