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House bill could regulate Internet access at public libraries

Lindsey J. Mastis

Daily Egyptian

People use a variety of resources at public libraries, including the Internet, to find information on topics such as art, baseball ˜ and sometimes pornography.

And unrestricted Internet access allows all users, including minors, to view pornography. This, according to State Rep. Jonathan Wright, R-Hatsburg, needs to be changed. Wright is backing House Bill 1215, a piece of legislation that would require all public libraries to install filtering software on computers available to minors.

The bill was voted down 6-3 in a committee Tuesday, but Wright still has hope that the proposal will eventually pass through to the General Assembly before the legislative session ends.

"My motivation is to try to limit a minor's access to pornography on the Internet," he said. "It will not eliminate minor's exposure to pornography, but anything we can do to reduce it will help."

But Robert Doyle, executive director of the Illinois Library Association, insists that filters block more than just pornography sites.

"Filters don't work," he said. "Filters are mechanical devices and they have no judgment or decision-making capabilities. Some use key words to block sites but some just contain pictures and it doesn't block them because there are no words; there are hundreds of examples."

At one point, Doyle said, the official site for the Superbowl was blocked because it contains the Roman numerals "XXX." Other sites that are blocked are ones containing the word "breast," including cancer awareness sites and political websites where the candidate's name is Dick.

In addition to the problems with filters, Doyle's claim that the estimated $8,000 cost of the filtering system is reasonable has been disputed.

Cristy Stupegia, constituency development officer at Morris Library, said that the amount could cause some Southern Illinois public libraries to decrease hours, cut down on staffing, end subscriptions to magazines such as TIME, and stop purchasing new books such as those on the best seller list.

"Public libraries are reflections of the communities they serve and if they can't afford [filters] it's possible that they will not have access," she said.

The current legislation would not affect Morris Library because it fits under an academic category that is not covered by the bill. But Doyle believes that future bills will focus on academic and school libraries considering that there were six attempts to require some form of regulation through bills.

To find out more about Internet regulation in libraries, visit the Illinois Library Association at www.ila.org.

To find out more about Internet regulation in libraries, visit the Illinois Library Association at www.ila.org.

Reporter Lindsey J. Mastis can be reached at ljmastis@dailyegyptian.com

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