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Overview of the Hillsborough County Library Internet-Filtering Case
"[T]he state may not, consistently with the spirit of the First Amendment, contract the spectrum of available knowledge." Board of Education v. Pico, 457 U.S. 853, 866 (1982) (Justice Brennan quoting Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479, 482 (1965)."
The advance of the Internet has brought major changes in the access and availability of information. Using the Internet, people worldwide can now obtain vast amounts of information, quicker and easier than ever before. The Supreme Court has analogized the Internet to a "vast library including millions of readily available and indexed publications," the content of which "is as diverse as human thought." [Reno v. ACLU , 521 U.S. 844, 852 2335 (1997)]. In keeping up with this communications revolution many public library systems now provide computers connected to the Internet.
This case arises from the Hillsborough County Public Library System's effort to restrict the types of information that can be accessed through the Internet in its libraries. The Library System's Advisory Board decided to filter access to the Internet last year after County Commissioner Ronda Storms began investigating Internet access in the libraries. The advisory board was told to put such restrictions in place after a mother had complained that her eightyearold daughter had been exposed to obscenity while walking by a computer someone was using.
The library system filters access to the Internet with the use of computer software called WebSense. A computer installed with this software will be blocked from accessing the Internet sites on WebSense's Master Database. The sites in this database are compiled by keyword searches on the Internet. Every workday new sites are added to the database by WebSense employees. These employees have little or no training in the legal aspects of censorship and protected speech.
There is only one library in Hillsborough County, the main branch in Downtown Tampa, where an adult can get unfiltered access to the Internet. This main branch in Tampa is a 30-minute round trip car drive from approximately 60% of the county's residents. In total, Hillsborough County has twentyone branch libraries with at least 60 computers connected to the Internet. All of these branches filter Internet access.
The monitors of the unfiltered computers are located underneath glass topped desks, which restrict their view to only those persons using the terminal. A patron must ask a librarian for access to use these terminals.
If a library patron on a filtered computer encounters a restricted site, they can request a librarian to unblock the site. This is usually done by filling out a form that will be reviewed by a librarian at a later time. Librarians have the authority to decide whether the site should remain blocked, however this decision can be appealed to other librarians and ultimately to the Library Board. The patron may also be monitored while using the computer.
Commissioner Storms did not find these provisions restrictive enough and with her urging the Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners voted 4-3 at the June 7th meeting to direct the county attorney to work on a law extending filtering to all the library system's computers.
