Missouri Libraries Obey Internet Law to Shield Minors

With the start of a new year, the St. Charles City-County Library District has installed filter software on selected Internet computers at all branches to comply with a new state law directed at protecting patrons under the age of 18 from sexually explicit material.

The new law requires schools and public libraries that provide access to the Internet to either "use filtering software, purchase Internet service through a provider that provides filter services or otherwise restrict minors' access to the Internet by local rule."

Library director Carl Sandstedt said the "current tap-on-the-shoulder policy" doesn't keep children from accessing sites that are inappropriate.

In anticipation of the new law, the library district purchased CyberPatrol, a filtering software, last spring.

"We bought these filtering licenses at a big discount through the state," Sandstedt said. "This has allowed us to comply with the new Missouri law while spending very little money."

Not all computers will be filtered. When a library patron signs up for Internet usage, age will be the only consideration. The libraries' computers will be labeled as filtered or non-filtered.

If a customer using a filtered computer attempts to access a restricted site, they will receive an "Access Denied" message on the computer screen.

The new rule will have no exceptions. "We would be in violation of the law even if we allowed a parent and a child under the age of 18 to sit together at an unfiltered computer," Sandstedt explained. "A parent telling us that their child can use an unfiltered computer is no different than a parent telling a waiter that it is all right to serve their minor child alcohol."

While the software may make the computers a little less vulnerable, they are in no way a complete solution. Sandstedt added, "It is very important for parents to realize that filtering an Internet computer in no way guarantees that access to all sites which they may consider objectionable will be restricted," Sandstedt said. "With the filtering software, there may be some protected sites that will get blocked and some unprotected that will get by. We hope we have achieved a middle ground."

If an adult or any other customer violates the district's policy by accessing inappropriate sites, the current "tap on the shoulder" policy still applies.