Software designed to stop people looking at internet pornography in libraries has been scrapped.

Brighton and Hove City Council found it was also blocking web sites on subjects ranging from cats to furniture.

Instead, customers will be banned from using the library computers if they access inappropriate sites with pornographic or racist material. Children's computers will still be screened.

Officials found filtered sites included one for helping children with their homework, another for fans of the rock band Radiohead and a third for the Royal Photographic Society.

Librarians will now require parental consent forms for children under 16 to use computers as a safeguard.

This will be put on their library cards.

Brighton and Hove will be following action taken by more than a third of other authorities in the UK and advice given by the Library Association.

Cabinet culture councillor Ian Duncan said: "We introduced filtering software with the best of intentions but clearly it is fraught with problems.

"The internet is a serious education and research tool and the software was inhibiting legitimate uses.

"Now we have brought in more practical safeguards, particularly to protect young children."

Access to the internet is free at all libraries in Brighton and Hove.