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By: LOU CHIBBARO JR. COMMENTS
 
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.
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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