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Abstract
Laws and library practices regarding content filtering have a significant impact on library customers' constitutionally protected access to information, their privacy, and their right to free speech. Libraries have a responsibility to be informed about relevant laws, technologies, and best practices in order to protect the intellectual freedom rights of our customers in an increasingly digital information landscape. This chapter of Privacy and Freedom of Information in 21st-century Libraries aims to help librarians begin to fulfill that responsibility.
Internet filtering, also referred to as content filtering or censorware, is one of the most pervasive and recurring intellectual freedom challenges for libraries worldwide. For some libraries, and indeed some entire countries, there is no question of whether or not to filter-filters in libraries are simply mandated by the government. In the United States, however, there is still at least a cursory nod to intellectual freedom and privacy from our governing agencies. But filtering in the United States is tied to optional, and tempting, library funding.
A divisive issue in libraries, the question of content filtering is central to our communities' future of information access. Content filtering involves values of a fundamental nature, so any solution results in parties feeling that they are giving up something of profound importance. There is no compromise, no middle ground. The American Library Association (ALA) has stated unequivocally that any type of restriction on a person's, including a child's, access to any type of content is unacceptable. The ALA Library Bill of Rights says very clearly: "A person's right to use a library should not be denied or abridged because of origin, age, background, or views."1 To the ALA and many librarians, content filters of any kind are antithetical to the mission of the library to provide free and open access to all information.
Simply put, filters block legitimate content with no threat to children while simultaneously allowing access to graphic sexual content that does pose a threat. Internet filters effect content-based restrictions on free speech. To most librarians, especially to those who champion intellectual freedom, Internet filters are constitutionally unacceptable for use in libraries, or anywhere else for that matter.
Laws and Court Cases Related to Internet Filters
There are several laws and court cases that affect library...