In my own state of Arizona, the state legislature defeated a bill last session that would have imposed similar blocking and filtering requirements on schools and libraries. Legislators in Arizona carefully considered our concerns and defeated the bill. It would be unfortunate indeed if Congress were to step in now and override such judgments made at the state level. It is worth noting here that most public libraries do not have the resources to provide general access for the public to E-mail or chat rooms. The image of the sexual predator stalking children through libraries is largely a myth, as I am not aware of any such incidents in public libraries.
Libraries serve as a community's principal source of information.
For many, the public library provides the only access to the vast resources of the Internet. To mandate that one computer be filtered would block access for library users of all ages, not just for children and youth. It deprives the community of access to many sites that provide valuable as well as constitutionally protected information for both adults and children on subjects ranging from AIDS and breast cancer to religion and politics. Not only has it prevented students and teachers from accessing important and valid information, such as the Web sites of the National Rifle Association and the ACLU, but it has allowed students to access clearly pornographic sites that are not blocked by the filter system. More recently, Marcoux expressed concern that blocking and filtering in the school setting undermines efforts to educate students to be responsible users of information.