A California county board, facing the threat of a First Amendment lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union, has voted to reverse its policy of filtering Internet content for all patrons and offer an uncensored view to all patrons, both adults and children.
ACLU staff attorney Ann Beeson called the Kern County Board of Supervisors' Tuesday night decision "a complete victory." The ACLU last weekend threatened to file a federal lawsuit against the board unless it lifted its tight restrictions on Net surfing in county libraries in Bakersfield and other communities.
Under a policy passed in 1996, content on library Net terminals was filtered through Seattle-based N2H2's Bess software.
Under the new policy, all 18 library branches will now have at least two Net terminals - one filtered, one filter-free. Under a directive issued Tuesday that concluded with an emphatic "please unfilter your terminals immediately," both adults and children will have free run of the unfiltered terminals.
Beeson was especially pleased that the county's agreement applies to everyone who uses the Kern County libraries, not just adults.
"The crucial point," she said, "is that all patrons get to decide what they want to see."
Pete Parra, chairman of the county board, said the change in policy was driven by the conclusion that no technology is available to accomplish the intent of the 1996 policy: to black out sexually explicit material in a way "consistent with constitutional principles."
"Most of this software is for home use, so you don't have a First Amendment issue," Parra said. "For public libraries, a First Amendment issue arises. There's no software we've seen that can distinguish Internet sites and block just sexually explicit material."
He added: "Hopefully, the technology will develop, and we'll still look at it."
