Posted on 06/23/2003 7:33:57 AM PDT by AntiGuv
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A sharply divided Supreme Court ruled Monday that Congress can force the nation's public libraries to equip computers with anti-pornography filters.
The blocking technology, intended to keep smut from children, does not violate the First Amendment even though it shuts off some legitimate, informational Web sites, the court held.
The court said because libraries can disable the filters for any patrons who ask, the system is not too burdensome. The 5-4 ruling reinstates a law that told libraries to install filters or surrender federal money.
It was victory for Congress, which has struggled to find ways to shield children from pornographic Internet sites. Congress has passed three laws since 1996 - the first was struck down by the Supreme Court and the second was blocked by the court from taking effect.
The first two laws dealt with regulations on Web site operators. The latest approach, in the 2000 law, mandated that public libraries put blocking technology on computers as a condition for receiving federal money. Libraries have received about $1 billion since 1999 in technologies subsidies, including tax money and telecommunications industry fees.
The government had argued that libraries don't have X-rated movies and magazines on their shelves and shouldn't have to offer access to pornography on their computers.
I've worked with these filtering programs for years and this USED to be correct. The original filters blocked using limited "keyword" technology. The filters now are much more sophisticated and use a combination of keywords and lists of blocked/unblocked sites. Even if a medical site is blocked in error for some reason, librarians can add it to an exception list so that it is always available.
Actually community standards still play an enormous role. In reference to another post you made about how different librarians will interpret this differently, that is EXACTLY where the law states community standards come into play. The only material that libraries absolutely have to filter is illegal material (ex. hard-core, rape sites, bestiality, child pornography). The rest is up to the library board/community standards to decide (Erotica, gambling, cults, drugs, hacking, etc)
I should be able to bring my teenager to the adult section of the library to find a book without being flashed with live sex shows on large computer screens that one MUST pass to get to the stacks. --How many times has that happened?--
Actually very frequently and in quite significant ways involving children. Groups working on filtering issues in libraries began requesting the complaint logs that libraries were keeping on these incidents. They were very successful under the "Freedom of Information Act" in the beginning and were able to obtain the records showing the high level of these problems. The ACLU/ALA then began cooperating to prevent examination of records like this and began destroying the logs and in many cases convinced libraries to stop keeping any such records at all. I have a very large document that compiled the patron complaints and would be happy to send it to anyone who freepmails me for it.
There were many incidents that involved children. Some cases were simply those where children were accidentally exposed to hard-core porn by walking by, some children were enticed over to the computers by men there, some children came across hard-core porn that was left at the printers and there were cases of children grabbed physically and pulled over to computers. There were also a few cases of children frightened by men exposing themselves and some rare cases of kids molested at the library by patrons who had just been at the computers.
That's exactly the problem. In too many communities, there seems to be absolutely no standards. Or, in other words, too many communities appear to have an "anything goes" attitude.
Bingo!
You know how the federal government worked its way into our pockets?
First, the federal government slates some funds from the general budget as a “gift” to the states to help with library expenses.
A few years later, the federal government will raise our taxes to pay for the “gift” and then some. Furthermore, now our local library becomes beholden to the federal bureaucracy.
The same game has been played with many other local issues, but we keep falling for it over and over again.
The intrusion is giving federal money to public libraries. This is just a change to that intrusion--I'll leave it up to you to decide whether putting a condition to the gift is a reduction or increase in the amount of intrusion...
Federal money = federal strings. Want freedom, reject federal funding.
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