I know most of us have probably used a public computer at a library or public school at some point in our lives, but it wasn't until 2000 that Congress enacted the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act.
The act provides funding for public schools and libraries that participate and can certify that they are using filtering programs to "prevent the on-screen depiction of obscenity, child pornography or material that is harmful to minors." The filtering can be disabled by the library for adult users, and 21 states have adopted internet filter laws. Some states have only adopted the filtering towards school and some, like Colorado, have filtering in both public schools and libraries.
In 2003 the Supreme Court held up the CIPA act, stating that it did not violate 1st Amendment because the libraries can disable the filter for adult users, and overturned the earlier court ruling that did not allow the act to take effect in libraries.
The National Conference of State Legislatures website has an overview of the Filtering act and a table of the states and their individual filtering laws.
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I am not as much against this type of filtering, in libraries and schools that can be disables for people of age. They are public places and there are rules and laws in most public places, so why not the computers too. You can run around naked in your own home but cannot do the same in a public area. Logically this filtering makes sense given our current policies.
ReplyDeleteIm not personally against library or school filtering, I actually think its fine I just thought it was an interesting take on internet filtering.
ReplyDeleteI can personally attest to filtering within schools. My high school had a filtering system that not only blocked pornographic websites and the like, but they also blocked other websites such as facebook, myspace, aim, hotmail, etc. There we at least a 12 or so that I remember being blocked. Their reasoning: those website were unproductive. While mostly true, my high school felt it had the authority to block websites that they deemed unnecessary.
ReplyDeleteI get the whole "shielding" of eyes from improper images in public spaces, etc. However, when is it too far?
My high school had filters on several websites you wouldn't think would normally be blocked. I vaguely remember the access being denied to sites that were needed for research, etc... I understand that certain sites need to be blocked, but at a school where courses are not taking places solely in a computer lab, individuals should be able to check their email and other basic sites.
ReplyDeleteI can see the argument for the use of filters but isn't it better just to teach kids what to do when they come across stuff that is not "appropriate" for them. As much as I wish some stuff didn't exist, and that kids would never see it, I think making things taboo only increases its allure.
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