Posted on: Friday, June 18, 2004

Libraries to filter Internet sex sites

By Derrick DePledge
Advertiser Education Writer

Hawai'i's public libraries will have an Internet filter by the end of the month to block young people from looking at obscene or pornographic Web sites.

The Children's Internet Protection Act, a 2000 federal law upheld as constitutional last year by the Supreme Court, requires public schools and libraries to either install the filters or lose federal money.

The state Department of Education has had Internet filters at schools for years, but the state's library system, like many libraries on the Mainland, has had concerns that such filters might restrict free-speech rights.

Hawai'i libraries, which have reduced hours and services because of state budget cuts, would lose an estimated $1 million in federal money if officials refused to install the filter by July.

Jo Ann Schindler, the state librarian, said library officials put aside philosophical or personal questions about the filter in favor of pragmatism. "Basically, we could not operate our libraries without it," she said of the federal money.

People 17 and older will be able to ask librarians to lift the filter so they can have full access to the Internet, although library rules prohibit people from using library computers to look at obscene or pornographic material. The filter will be installed on the system's central server and is designed to intercept a list of offensive Web sites.

While the law is aimed at shielding children from smut, librarians acknowledge that the filter may also block access to sites that deal with such issues as healthcare, alternative politics or sexual identity.

A few libraries on the Mainland have decided to give up federal money rather than add filters. "They are choosing not to take the money so they can maintain local control," said Deborah Caldwell-Stone, deputy director of the office for intellectual freedom at the American Library Association in Chicago.

The library association opposed the law as an infringement on free speech. Since Internet filters are not foolproof, librarians say, Web sites that contain constitutionally protected speech can be blocked.

Carol Gabbard, chairwoman of the state Board of Education's committee on public libraries and charter schools, said adding the filter is the right move for Hawai'i. "I think parents need to be confident that libraries are safe places for their kids," she said.

The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, in a 2002 study, found that the least restrictive and intermediate filters did not block access to most general health information Web sites, but that the most restrictive filters shielded one in four health sites. The study found that sites on topics related to sexual health were more likely to be intercepted. A search on "safe sex," for instance, found that one in 10 health sites was blocked under the least restrictive filter, while half of health sites were blocked by the most restrictive filter.

Andrew Morton, who will be a senior next school year at Kea'au High School on the Big Island, said he has used computers with filters at school and has found that it blocked sites that had nothing to do with pornography, like when he was doing school research on gay rights.

But he said it was all right for state libraries to have a filter. "It's better than letting things get through," Morton said.

Other young people are not as sure. "Some people rely solely on the library for a computer. Where are they going to get the information?" said YeeTing Lee, who will be a sophomore at McKinley High School.

She said teenagers who want to download pornography would probably not try to do it in plain view at the library, anyway. "It's not a good idea," Lee said of the Internet filter. "What's the point?"

Reach Derrick DePledge at ddepledge@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8084.