The Los Angeles City Council registered its disapproval June 29 of a California bill that, if passed, would mandate the installation of blocking software on public-library computers and forbid patrons under 18 to surf unfiltered without written parental consent or an accompanying adult. The bill is slated for reconsideration in January.
Characterizing S.B. 238 as “good political rhetoric that ignores reality,” Councilman Mike Feuer asserted that “filters don’t always work,” according to the June 30 Los Angeles Daily News. Instead, Feuer recommended that council members wait for Los Angeles Public Library to report the results of its 90-day pilot project in which it set the search-engine default of 21 children’s-area computers in seven branches to child-oriented services such as Yahooligans or Jeeves for Kids.
A July 5 Daily News report blasted the council’s 11–3 vote, noting Feuer’s opposition to cigarette billboards in L.A. neighborhoods. “Cigarettes on billboards are dangerous but pornography on the Internet is healthy?” asked the newspaper rhetorically.
Posted July 12, 1999.