Indiana Bill Mandates Annual Meetings
on Community Standards
A bill being considered by the Indiana General Assembly added a unique twist to the community-standards issue. Besides mandating that school and public libraries block children’s access to materials deemed harmful to minors, HB 1310 requires school boards and library trustees to redefine community standards at an annual public meeting and identify “what materials are considered inappropriate for minors.”
David Burt of Filtering Facts and Larry Ottinger of People for the American Way agreed that the “inappropriate for minors” standard may be too vague, the February 3 electronic publication free! reported. But while Ottinger decried the overall bill as “bad policy and legally suspect,” Burt praised its annual-meeting provision “as a floor that all libraries will meet” before identifying what constitutes inappropriate material for each library “based on their own standards.”
Introduced January 11, the bill has been sent to the House Committee on Public Policy, Ethics, and Veteran Affairs.
Posted February 14, 2000.
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