Arkansas Revisits
Filter-Mandate Legislation
An Arkansas lawmaker has introduced a bill that, if passed, would mandate the use of Internet filters to block material deemed harmful to minors from computers in public schools and libraries. Sponsored by state Rep. Jim Bob Duggar (R-Springdale), the bill would exempt employees of compliant schools and libraries from criminal or civil prosecution should youngsters nevertheless access any inappropriate material.
In 1999, Rep. Henry “Hank” Wilkins IV (D-Pine Bluff) introduced a similar bill, only to substitute a proposal several weeks later requiring that libraries have an acceptable-use policy that bars minors from accessing harmful materials online.
Noting that the Duggar bill exempts from the harmful-to-minors definition digital items that “have serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value for minors,” Internet law expert Jonathan Wallace said in the December 15 online publication Free! that the legislation is nonetheless unconstitutional because it orders the use of “flawed software that routinely blocks material with significant . . . value to minors.”
Posted December 25, 2000.
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