Michigan Senate Passes Net Porn Bill as City Heads for Filter Vote

Staff -- Library Journal, 2/21/2000

The Michigan Senate unanimously passed a bill February 17 requiring public libraries to use computer filters, parental supervision, or other methods to prevent children from viewing obscenity or "harmful to minors" matter on the Internet. The passage of SB936  was seen by a spokesman for the Herrick District Library as endorsing the library's "tap on the shoulder" policy as an option instead of installing filtering software, according to the February 18 Holland Sentinel. Meanwhile, the American Family Association has contributed $35,000 to support a February 22 referendum in Holland on whether filtering software should be required at the Herrick Library, according to the Feburary 17 Holland Sentinel. The contretemps in Michigan and elsewhere led Paul McMasters, the First Amendment Ombudsman for the Freedom Forum, the nonpartisan journalism organization, to write in the online magazine free!, "This campaign is not just about pornography. It is also about hate speech, violence, feminism, New Age religion, alternative lifestyles, and other kinds of expression some find offensive or inimical to their view of the world."