Public libraries must block Internet porn

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The Supreme Court yesterday rejected claims of censorship and upheld a federal law that requires federally funded libraries to block Internet pornography sites from children by equipping its computers with filtering software.

"To the extent that libraries wish to offer unfiltered access, they are free to do so without federal assistance," said the main opinion written by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist.

"Especially because public libraries have traditionally excluded pornographic material from their other collections, Congress could reasonably impose a parallel limitation on its Internet assistance programs," he wrote in endorsing the required use of pornography filters.

The high-court majority rejected claims by the American Library Association and others that the Children's Internet Protection Act forces librarians to be censors and noted the law allows librarians to unblock filters upon request by adults.

Judith Krug of the American Library Association predicted that many libraries would take Chief Justice Rehnquist up on his challenge and turn down money rather than install filters.

"We can't govern ourselves effectively if we don't have information available. It's not up to the filtering companies to decide," she said.

Rita Thompson-Joyner, assistant librarian and director for lifelong learning for D.C. Public Libraries, said the District's libraries will comply because "we can't afford to forgo federal funding," while other area librarians doubted the ruling would affect their operations.

"Because of the way we use [government] funding, we do not anticipate having to put filters on the computers we have now," said Lois Kirkpatrick, spokeswoman for the Fairfax County Public Library system.

Kay Ecelbarger, chief of the collections department for the Montgomery County Public Library system, agreed, saying her libraries would wait to see what the Federal Communications Commission said was the impact of the ruling, before making any changes.