Living in a Post-CIPA World
Information Today, Vol. 20, No. 8, p. 17, September 2003
3 Pages Posted: 15 Jul 2010
Date Written: September 2003
Abstract
Concluding what turned out to be a landmark year for the information community, the United States Supreme Court affirmed the constitutionality of the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA). The Act ties receipt of federal E-rate and LSTA funding to the installation and use of Internet filters on public school and library computers.
As a librarian and a First Amendment junkie I am not a fan of filtering in any form. But the reality is that as a librarian I filter information every day when I decide what to purchase and what not to purchase for my library. Information content providers make similar decisions in deciding what to provide and what not to provide on their Websites and databases. Reviewing the Supreme Court’s decision carefully, one can find some ground upon which to build a filtering environment that while not perfect, and not what the First Amendment junkie in me would prefer, is a manageable solution.
Keywords: Children’s Internet Protection Act, CIPA, information content providers, U.S. Supreme Court, Internet law, legislation, Internet filters, free speech, First Amendment, access to information, technology, blocking, child protection, Websites, schools, libraries
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