Michigan Libraries Regroup
for New Internet Law
The October 1 deadline set by a new Michigan law requiring libraries to shield children from viewing sexually explicit material online set off a flurry of eleventh-hour Internet policy reviews throughout the state. Some libraries are installing filters, most notably the Herrick District Library based in Holland, where voters overwhelmingly defeated a filter-mandate ordinance on the February Republican primary ballot.
“I never will like filters,” Herrick board President John Meengs said in the September 29 Grand Rapids Press. “But there comes a time when I dislike having children affected by materials inappropriate for them more.” The library will also erect a partition between adult and children’s computers, and drape the adult-side windows.
That’s not good enough for Kimberley Fraser of the Family Research Council, which campaigned hard for the failed Holland ordinance. “Public institutions should not provide any pornography,” she told the paper.
Since the law considers compliance to entail “utilizing [any] method to prevent a minor” from viewing explicit fare, other libraries have resorted to such schemes as allowing children Internet access only when accompanied by a parent or guardian.
Posted October 9, 2000.
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