In a U.S. Supreme Court ruling Monday, justices voted 6-3 enabling government officials to require public libraries to install anti-pornography filters on computers. If the libraries do not comply, the government also has the right to halt the issuing of federal money.
With more than 14 million people using public library computers every year, some type of filtering concerning Internet pornography is smart, but the government has gone too far with this ruling.
Libraries are sources for a plethora of resource options, including the Internet, which not everyone has access to. The law does not specifically allow librarians to disable the filter for adults. Because filters are not advanced enough to be 100 percent effective, the court should have considered making an age exemption. At times, filters block information that should be accessible, and this interferes with those conducting research. With no positive guarantee of the filter weeding out only Internet smut, the government should have looked to areas such as Cuyahoga County for guidance on how to handle this law.
The majority of the 484 computers in Cuyahoga County public libraries do not have filtered computers, but users under the age of 18 must acquire parental permission before logging onto the Internet, according to The Plain Dealer. This willingness to forego federal funding shows libraries can circumvent the law.
The spirit of the law in general is a good thing, but some changes to the filtering system might have been a better option. Going along similar lines as Cuyahoga County public libraries, the government should have not implemented a filter for those 18 and older. However, a filter to keep children from viewing porn on the Internet should be implemented and it would achieve the same overall goal as the recent law without prohibiting the free, public access libraries provide.
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