Pennsylvania Lawmakers
Reconsider Filter Mandate
Some two months after Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge unveiled his 2001–02 budget proposal that adds another $94 million to this year’s state aid to libraries, legislators have reintroduced a bill that would strip funding from public libraries that don’t filter.
“If Pennsylvania’s taxpayers are going to provide its libraries with the ability to access the Internet, then Pennsylvania’s taxpayers are going to have some say about how the Internet is used,” Sen. Jeffrey Piccola (R-Dauphin) said in the March 1 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette of the bill he had introduced a week earlier. Identical to HB 10, Piccola’s bill requires that schools and public libraries provide filtered Internet service “to block access by any person to material, the character of which is reasonably believed to be obscene, child pornography, or harmful to minors,” although filters may be disabled for adults pursuing “bona fide research or other lawful purpose.” There is no fiscal penalty for noncompliant schools, although “aggrieved” parents could seek a court order to force a library or school to comply.
Posted March 12, 2001.
|
