Internet Filter Lawsuits

LOUDOUN COUNTY, VA.

Action: The board of directors for the county’s public library system voted last fall to install filters on all of its machines. A vocal group of patrons protested, noting they couldn’t get information dealing with sex education, breast cancer and, oddly enough, a Quaker Web site.

Reaction: A group of residents--including Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Henry Taylor--and a community organization called Mainstream Loudoun filed suit against the board in U.S. District Court in Alexandria. The complaint asserts that the filters violate library users’ civil rights. And because public libraries are government institutions, the suit contends, they are held to the highest level of scrutiny under the 1st Amendment.

Status: Pending

VENTURA COUNTY

Action: The county’s public library system requires computer users to sign a form promising they will not view sexually explicit online material.

Reaction: The Libertarian Party of Ventura County, claiming such a requirement is unconstitutional, filed a civil lawsuit in U.S. District Court earlier this month.

Status: Pending

BOSTON

Action: Mayor Thomas M. Menino ordered filtering software installed on all library, school and community center computers last year after several parents complained that children were viewing pornographic material on the Internet at city libraries.

Reaction: Library staff and officials with the American Library Assn., concerned about protecting the 1st Amendment, balked at the mayor’s plan.

Status: A compromise was reached for the libraries, where filters were installed on computers in the youth areas. Filters were also installed in all school districts and public centers.

PASADENA

Action: School district officials discovered that workers were using campus computers to access pornographic sites. The public schools get their Internet access through the Los Angeles County Office of Education, which uses software filters. But some explicit material could still be accessed.

Reaction: The district shut down access to the Net from employees’ homes and began searching for the identities of the employees who pulled up the X-rated material.

Status: The computer system deleted the users’ identities. The district adopted a new acceptable-use policy, under which students who repeatedly violate the policy can be suspended and employee violators can be fired.