Local Legislators' Bills Pass [PA House Passes CIPA-like Bill 190-6!]

The state Legislature has sent to the governor an Internet pornography bill.... The anti-pornography bill sponsored by former Rep. Allan Egolf, R-86, would withhold a portion of state funding from public schools or libraries that do not adopt policies to prevent students and employees from sending, receiving, viewing or downloading visual depictions of obscenity, child pornography or material harmful to minors, Egolf says in a written statement. Under the proposed law, library boards would be responsible for implementing and enforcing their policies with the use of access-blocking software, Egolf says. The bill passed the House in June by a vote of 182-10 and cleared the Senate Friday with minor changes, Egolf says. Final approval in the House was 190-6.

Gee, bet the ALA [American Library Association] is going to flip out when they see the blue state of Pennsylvania has sent a CIPA-like bill to the governor by a vote of 190-6, that's 97%!!! We predict the ALA's response, besides the same old same old, is to place a higher percentage of inappropriate books into their recommended book lists for children to bypass the will of the people. Perhaps Pennsylvania ought to lead the country in taking on that fight as well. See www.Plan2Succeed.org for important information to protect children from library predators invited in by ALA librarians.

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=109&STORY=/www/story/11-30-2004/0002555444&EDATE=

PA Governor Rendell Signs Bills

HARRISBURG, Pa., Nov. 30 /PRNewswire/ -- PA Governor Edward G. Rendell today signed the following bills into law:

House Bill 2262, sponsored by Rep. Allan Egolf (R-Franklin/Perry), establishes the Child Internet Protection Act. It provides that each school board and the governing body of each public library establish an acceptable use policy for users of the Internet in schools and libraries. The aim is to prevent students and patrons from viewing, sending or receiving electronic images that are obscene, harmful to minors, or contain child pornography. Each school board and library is to file a copy of the policy with the Secretary of Education, who is responsible for review of the policies and enforcement of the Act. The library may disable any software that has been installed to block the images on request of an adult or minor who has written parental consent, to enable that person to conduct bona fide research or for other lawful purposes.

The bill passed the House, 182-10, and was approved in the Senate, 43-3, where it was amended. It passed the House on concurrence, 190-6. b>Acceptable use policies are to be adopted within 180 days of the effective date of this act and filed with the Secretary within 200 days of the act. The act is effective immediately.

CONTACT: Brandi N. Hunter
717-783-1116

SOURCE Pennsylvania Office of the Governor Web Site: http://www.state.pa.us

Thanks. We agree. We are started to get calls asking about us. Sooner or later we'll start getting more press coverage. We don't care about getting coverage except to the extent that it gets the message out about what the problem is, who is responsible for it, and what can be done to restore the problem to expected norms. There's no need for kids to be molested in public libraries by people whipped up on taxpayer-provided pornography.

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