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Jeanne Criscola Criscola Design
free speech first amendment censorship
Public Library in Michigan Pressured to Install Internet Filters
February 2000
Midland, Michigan.
The American Family Association, which has already targeted Holland and Hudsonville in its campaign to censor the Internet in public libraries, has now turned its sights on Midland’s Grace A. Dow Memorial Library.
This is especially interesting since the library already has filters on its computers terminals in the children’s areas. The head of the Michigan chapter of the AFA, Gary Glenn, claims that’s not good enough. He wants most computers in the adult section to be filtered too, and he apparently wants the library to supervise access to the unfiltered computer. An article on January 31, 2000, in the Midland (Michigan) Daily News, quoted Glenn as saying, "Our goal is to have all Michigan libraries, including the Grace A. Dow Memorial Library, filter Internet access on all terminals, except for one, which must be authorized for use by adults only." Glenn is also demanding that the unfiltered terminal have a disclaimer on it, saying that the computer affords access to pornographic sites.
NCAC has a briefing paper on Internet censorship in libraries, called The Cyber-Library: Legal and Policy Issues Facing Public Libraries in the High-Tech Era, available on-line and in hard copy. Another valuable resource is censorware.net which contains reports from the Censorware Project detailing the deficiencies of many of the popular filtering programs. Click here to read an article NCAC sent to several regional and local papers about the ballot initiative in Holland.
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