Florida, Other States, Weigh
Library Internet Restrictions
Florida and New Jersey recently joined South Carolina, Utah, Michigan, Indiana, and other states in considering legislation to regulate Internet access in public libraries.
Florida House Bill 1081, introduced March 7, would require public libraries to have filtering software on at least half of their public-access computers; if a library only has one Internet computer, then it must be filtered. The bill has not yet been assigned to a committee.
New Jersey bill A-2196, the Student Internet Access Act introduced March 6, would require public libraries to install filtering software on all Internet terminals available to minors or risk having 10% of their state funding withheld. Bill sponsor Assemblyman Steve Corodemus (R-Monmouth) compared allowing children to surf the Web freely with letting them play on a busy highway, according to the March 14 Asbury Park Press.
Other states with pending legislation include Pennsylvania (House Bill 2324 would require acceptable-use policies and blocking software in public and school libraries) and Maryland (Senate Bill 522 would only require public libraries to adopt appropriate policies for Internet use by minors). A bill similar to Pennsylvania’s was introduced in West Virginia on March 2 but failed to make it out of committee before the legislative session ended.
Posted March 20, 2000.
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