While House Debates Starr Report,
Committee Considers Online Smut
In an ironic juxtaposition, while the House of Representatives was debating September 12 whether to put the Starr report online, its Subcommittee on Telecommunications held a hearing on measures to protect children from inappropriate materials on the Internet.
The hearing, chaired by Rep. Michael Oxley (R-Ohio), sponsor of the Child Online Protection Act, was intended to counter complaints that the controversial measures are being rushed through Congress with insufficient debate. Rep. Ernest Istook (R-Okla.) testified in favor of his amendment that would require schools and libraries that receive federal computer funds to install filtering software.
Agnes Griffen, director of the Tucson Pima (Ariz.) Public Library, testified in support of ALA's view that the decision whether to employ filters should be made by local communities through library and school boards, not the federal government. Jerry Berman, executive director of the Center for Democracy and Technology, questioned whether the proposals to restrict online smut would make it illegal to send excerpts from the Starr report over the Internet.
The committee voted September 17 to send Oxley's bill to the full House.
Posted September 21, 1998.
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