House Vote on DOPA May Be Today
-- Library Journal, 7/26/2006
The American Library Association's (ALA) Washington Office yesterday urged librarians to lobby their Congressional representatives regarding H.R. 5319, the Deleting Online Predators Act (DOPA), which may be voted on by the House of Representatives today. DOPA would extend the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA) by requiring schools and libraries that receive E-rate support to block chat rooms and social networking web sites like MySpace. ALA points out that schools and libraries should make decisions about content, and that the bill "paints an unflattering and distorted view of the Internet as a whole," thus scaring away potential users.
Beth Yoke, executive director of Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), last week testified on DOPA before the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet. She observed: "Youth librarians believe, and more importantly know from experience, that education about safe Internet practices – for both youth and parents – is the best way to protect young people. We believe that the overly broad technological controls that would be required under DOPA are often ineffective given the fast-moving nature of modern technology. Further, such technological controls often inadvertently obstruct access to beneficial sites."
