IdahoReporter.com

Rep. Mack Shirley, R-Rexburg, started the second day of hearings for his legislation requiring public libraries to have content filtering software aimed at protecting children from pornography by thanking the committee and the time it had allowed both sides for testimony. Shirley then explained that the two sides had come together after testimony Wednesday and agreed on the bill with a few amendments, keeping child safety as the primary goal of the bill. The revised bill will be sent to the amending order to reflect the agreed-upon changes.

The agreement included letting libraries, such as those in the Boise Library District, who choose not have filtering for adults continue to do so. Also, librarians may disable the content filtering if they are requested to, but they are not obligated to. Both sides agreed that these amendments would give much more local control than the original version of the bill. Should the bill make its way into law, the effective start date for it would be Oct. 1, 2012, giving libraries throughout the state ample time to make the necessary changes in policy and implementation.

Shirley patterned his legislation after CIPA, which Congress enacted in 2000. CIPA stands for the Children’s Internet Protection Act. The act aims to protect children from accessing offensive content on school and library computers. In order to receive funding from the federal E-rate program – which is a program making certain communications technology is more affordable for eligible schools and libraries – schools and libraries must prove they have sufficient Internet safety policies and protective technology measures in place.

Although many libraries in the state already have some sort of content filtering in place, Shirley and the bill’s supporters argue children are still at risk.

Opponents of the bill agreed on two things. One, although Rep. Shirley claims there will be no cost, there most definitely will be. Two, these filters aren’t a catch-all. They sometimes don’t block everything they should, while other times they block things they shouldn’t.

Shirley said that while this legislation isn’t perfect, it is the best option. “This legislation is constitutionally sound and there has been no clear or better alternative.” He also said that while many libraries do already have filters, there is nothing in state code that mentions it. He believes this completes the Idaho statute similar to that used in public schools. “More and more of our children will be going to our libraries to follow up and work on school material,” adding, “we’ve all heard of the adverse affects pornography has on our society.”

Jared Smith, a student at BYU Idaho, spoke in support of the bill. Smith testified to having seen pornographic images on three different occasions on computers at a library he worked at in high school. Seeing those images and not knowing how to deal with them at a young age turned him into a porn addict. “I had thoughts of suicide, and I was in my own personal hell,” he said. Smith claims that research has shown that overexposure to pornography damages the brain. According to Smith, he has had counseling and continues to improve. He predicts it will take around 10 years to fully recover from his addiction.

Genie Hessman, also a proponent of the bill, said pornography caused her husband to commit suicide. Hessman said her husband was addicted to pornography for a long time and she had no idea. He was a loving husband and a great father. She said eventually it became too much for him. “When he finally told me about his addiction, he said it had gotten so bad that he had thoughts of raping me. We went to counseling and tried to work through it, but it didn’t matter.”

Patricia Younger, director of the Meridian library district, was upset at the way libraries seemed to be portrayed. “It seems as though everyone is portraying the public library as a dark place where people just come to hang out and watch porn,” she said. “We already have filters in place that we pay for. Some of the research databases we spend money on we can’t access because the filter sees something.” She also noted a potential problem with the law: “This law would not allow us to open them for any students if they are under 18, even if it is for research.”

Gina Persichini, a networking consultant for the Idaho Commission for Libraries, also believes the bill is a bad idea. Persichini says free software is never completely free, comparing it to a “free kitten.” Basically, it may be free upfront, but maintenance and care down the road are going to cost something. She also told a personal story of how the filters don’t always work correctly. “A friend and I decided we wanted to go out to eat in the (Boise) downtown area. We picked a restaurant and looked it up online. Our filter blocked the menu for adult content. When we finally looked at the menu we could find nothing, not a word, that could be construed as adult content.”