Libraries and schools that offer unlimited Internet access to children should not receive federal money, Republican presidential candidate John McCain told a town meeting at the Greenville Public Library Friday.

The library ran afoul of the Arizona senator last month when he learned its computers were often used by a group of adults, including a convicted sex offender, to gain access to sexually explicit material in the presence of children-and that there were no restrictions on what sites children could reach. "That this scourge can exist in this beautiful, religiously grounded, family-friendly town points out the enormity of the crisis," he said. "If you walk into any library and ask for a Hustler magazine the library will tell you it's not available because it's inappropriate. Yet a child can log on to the library computer and surf the Web for some of the most degrading and shocking pornography available." McCain disagreed with the American Library Association_s assertion that unlimited Internet access was free speech. He suggested libraries use Web filtering devices to limit access to sexually explicit material. McCain_s visit coincided with a poll conducted by the Strom Thurmond Institute at Clemson University that showed him well behind Texas Gov. George W. Bush but making up ground in the state.