LOCAL

Internet ‘filtering’ bill stalled in legislature
ACLU says measure could block gay sites on library computers

LOU CHIBBARO JR.
Friday, February 04, 2005

A committee in the Virginia State Senate rejected by a tie vote a bill that would cut off state funds to public libraries unless they install software to block Web sites depicting subject matter defined as “obscene” under Virginia law.

Opponents of the bill, including the Virginia chapter of the ACLU, say so-called “filtering” software programs usually fail to block all Internet sites being targeted while they often succeed in blocking other sites that are not sexually oriented, such as gay or safer sex-related sites aimed at preventing the spread of AIDS.

Aimee Perron Seibert, the Virginia ACLU’s legislative director, said the Senate General Laws Committee could bring the bill in question, SB 882, back for a second vote under rules of the Virginia Legislature that pertain to tie votes in committee.

She said a member of the panel who abstained from voting when the bill came up on Jan. 19 could seek a second consideration of the bill. The second vote must come prior to a Feb. 8 deadline for all bills to be approved in the house in which they were first introduced. Bills that don’t pass by that date die and can’t be considered again until the next legislative session.

“We’re not certain what will happen to this one,” Seibert said.

A similar bill died in the legislature last year.

‘Crude’ technology?
Senator Mark Obenshain (R-Harrisonburg) introduced this year’s version in conjunction with an identical bill introduced in the Virginia House of Delegates by Del. Samuel Nixon (R-Chesterfield).

At a Jan. 10 news conference, Nixon said his bill was aimed at protecting children from “stumbling” onto pornography sites while going online at their local public libraries, according to a report by the Associated Press.

He said the bill would make Virginia law consistent with an existing federal law that requires public libraries to install blocking devices on computers with Internet access as a condition for receiving federal funds, the AP said. Nixon noted that the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the use of “anti-pornography” Internet filters in public libraries, the AP reported.

Nixon held his news conference jointly with the Virginia Family Foundation, which disclosed plans to lobby the legislature for a state constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage and same-sex civil unions, the AP reported.

Seibert said the ACLU is urging the General Laws Committee to kill the Internet filtering bill on grounds that it intrudes on the personal privacy of adults who use public libraries. She said the ACLU believes the decision on whether to install such filters should be left to individual libraries.

“To our knowledge, every court that has addressed this issue — including a federal district court in Virginia and the U.S. Supreme Court — has conceded that Internet blocking technologies are crude instruments that wipe out far more information than intended,” the Virginia ACLU stated in a Jan. 19 memorandum to the General Laws Committee.

The memo acknowledges that the U.S. Supreme Court, in the case U.S. vs. the American Library Association, upheld a federal law making federal funding for public libraries contingent upon their use of Internet filtering software. But the ACLU states in the memo that the court “only achieved a majority vote because the law contains a provision allowing libraries to turn off the blocking software for adults under certain conditions.”

Dyana Mason, executive director of the statewide gay group Equality Virginia, said the group has not taken a position on the Internet filtering bill because it doesn’t consider it a gay specific piece of legislation.

“We can’t take a position on all bills if they don’t directly affect the gay community,” Mason said.

Other gay groups have expressed strong opposition to Internet “filter” laws, saying they often force public libraries or other institutions to install software that blocks non-sexually oriented gay sites, including sites for gay youth groups. Organizations that deal with the AIDS epidemic have complained that filtering devices often block Web sites that offer HIV prevention messages, including advice on which sexual practices to avoid to curtail the spread of AIDS.

Lou Chibbaro Jr. can be reached at lchibbaro@washblade.com.

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