[ OUR OPINION ]

Hawaii libraries have
no choice but to
censor Internet

THE ISSUE The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld a law requiring public libraries to install pornography filters on its computers in order to receive federal aid.

STATE Librarian Virginia Lowell made a valiant and inventive effort to thwart Internet censorship imposed by Congress three years ago. Alas, the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the repressive law, and Hawaii's library system will be required to conform with it or lose nearly $1 million in federal funds. It cannot afford to continue along the quixotic path skirting the federal requirement.

After two previous Internet censorship laws were struck down as unconstitutional, Congress enacted the Children's Internet Protection Act. It requires public and school libraries receiving federal assistance to install software filters on their computers to block images of obscenity, child pornography and sexual matters regarded as "harmful to minors."

Anti-pornography filters, notoriously imprecise, block large amounts of constitutionally protected material, including medical Web sites about breast cancer and avant-garde art. They have even blocked a site about "Mars Explorer" because of the three-letter sequence of s-e-x.

Lowell, maintaining that "filters don't work," instead created a library service called PACE, for Parents Authorize Cyberspace Entry, in response to the federal law. Parents are allowed to have an electronic "block" on their child's library card, allowing Internet access only in a librarian's presence. Lowell took the position that the "block" is software conforming to the federal requirement.

In a 6-3 vote, the Supreme Court ruled this week that the Internet censorship law does not violate the First Amendment right of library patrons. The ruling leaves it up to individual library systems to decide what filter system to use and to allow adults to have the filtering software turned off. Libraries are free to acquire filters on the open market. Hawaii's public school libraries installed filters monitored by a San Diego-based filter service in 1999.

Lowell recognizes that the Hawaii system's PACE program does not meet the federal requirements. She expressed disappointment in the court ruling and said the system "is not prepared to give up our only federal funding sources." The federal government provides Internet access at a discount and grants for setting up and linking to electronic networks.

Hawaii library rules forbid anyone from displaying pornographic images on a computer, and patrons can be banned from the library for violations. In the first year of the PACE program, only three adults and three juveniles were caught violating the rule.

Librarians have a long history of fighting for First Amendment rights, including opposition to the blacklisting of books dealing with sexual subjects, such as D.H. Lawrence's "Lady Chatterly's Lover." They can be relied upon to take whatever measures are necessary to protect library patrons' rights as much as the high court's flawed ruling makes possible.