FCC: Library Filters Work, Having Them is a Community Decision, and Libraries Should Revisit CIPA Filters Due to Technological Advances

Lisa Hone, Esq., FCC

Library Internet filters work well, it's a community decision to have them, and libraries should reconsider using them given "the technology has advanced so tremendously."  Read this comment from Lisa Hone, Deputy Division Chief of the Federal Communication Commissions's [FCC] Telecommunications Access Policy Division.  It was made during a webinar by FCC's Jonathan Chambers, Chief of the Office of Strategic Planning and Policy Analysis and others from FCC's Wireline Competition Bureau:

I would also just remind folks that that that communities have lots of lots of leeway so that to be in compliance with CIPA is a community decision about what you need to do to be in compliance with CIPA, and, so, I know there're some people who are just opposed philosophically to to to any sort of burden but, um, I think that A) communities can decide what their community standard is under CIPA, and B) the technology has advanced so tremendously that it's pretty easy to have a different standard for adults and children, which I don't think was really the case, uh, when CIPA was first enacted.  So to the extent that it's a bar and, uh, and a library hasn't revisited the issue in recent years, it might be worth revisiting.

• "E-rate Never Sleeps," by Marijke Visser, District Dispatch, The Official ALA Washington Office Blog, 8 August 2014, Lisa Hone speaking at about 18:06 into the FCC webinar.

CIPA, by the way, is the Children's Internet Protection Act that requires filters on public library computers in exchange for certain federal E-rate funding.  Lisa Hone said what she said after one library director wrote: "Many libraries don't apply [for FCC E-rate funding] due to CIPA."  In other words, they voluntarily turn down federal funding because they think they speak for the community and are "just opposed philosophically to to to any sort of burden."  Lisa Hone spoke up to attempt to correct that outdated view.

Library Filters Work: "Technology Has Advanced So Tremendously"

So library Internet filters work and work well.  Do not let anyone tell you otherwise, not even ALA's so-called "Office for Intellectual Freedom" [OIF].  I have previously revealed how the head of OIF was forced to admit filters work while she was being interviewed on an NPR affiliate after library director Dean Marney won state and federal cases proving not only that libraries may legally filter, but they need not unfilter porn:

• "ALA Admits Library Filters Work; Barbara Jones Bursts Her Own Breast Cancer Bubble," by Dan Kleinman, SafeLibraries, 3 February 2012.
• "How to Filter Public Library Computers: Bradburn v NCRL Shows Libraries Need Not Approve Unblock Requests," by Dan Kleinman, SafeLibraries, 25 April 2013.
• "Library Porn Removal Roadmap; NCRL Director Dean Marney Details How to Legally Remove Legal Porn from Public Library Computers and Advises that the ALA Relies on Outdated Dogma," by Dan Kleinman, SafeLibraries, 15 November 2010.

Communities Get to Decide, Not "People Who Are Just Opposed Philosophically"

Further, it's a community decision to have filters, not solely "some people who are just opposed philosophically."  These are community libraries.  Community rules should apply.  They should make informed decisions, informed by people like FCC's Lisa Hone, not misinformed by Barbara Jones or Deborah Caldwell-Stone from ALA OIF.   They intentionally mislead communities into being the leading facilitators of porn in the nation, and my source for saying this is Ernest Istook, CIPA's author:

• "CIPA Author Exposes ALA Deception; Ernest Istook Who Authored Children's Internet Protection Act Calls Out American Library Association for Using Legal Tactics to Claim First Amendment Protection for Public Library Pornography Viewing, Causing Librarians to Be Indifferent and Leave Children Unprotected," by Dan Kleinman, SafeLibraries, 27 February 2012.
• "ALA Listed As Top Facilitator of Porn in America and a Leading Contributor to Sexual Exploitation of Women," by Dan Kleinman, SafeLibraries, 29 March 2013.

Lisa Hone Calls for Libraries to "Revisit" Past Decisions Not to Filter

So, as Lisa Hone points out, if your library "hasn't revisited [library filters] in recent years, it might be worth revisiting."  CIPA has been around for over a decade, after all.  A lot has changed, even if ALA OIF makes like it hasn't.

Example of Local Library Using ALA Propaganda to Push Child Porn

In closing, here's an example of a local library applying ALA OIF propaganda to push child pornography: Orland Park Public Library [OPPL].  We saw above that ALA OIF claimed filters blocked breast cancer searches, then was forced in early 2012 to reverse itself only a week later.  Barbara Jones said: "Um, I would like to say that, yeah, the breast cancer example probably is kinda old these days...."  OPPL is a library that allows child porn viewing, covers it up for the viewers, and criminally silences the whistleblowers who are part of the community that Lisa Hone rightly says should get to decide whether to use filters.  But one who is "just opposed philosophically" is the library's public relations advocate Bridget Bittman.  She mislead the community in many ways, including this from late 2013, a year and a half after the Barbara Jones admission that breast cancer is just an excuse and with Barbara Jones's direct, personal involvement in guiding OPPL:

Bittman said filters would not only limit a patron's rights, they could ban access to sites college students or people doing research might need to access.  Being denied access to the word "breast" might prevent a person from looking up breast cancer, for example, she said.

• "Battle of Orland Park Library's Internet Porn Policy Heats Up," by Donna Vickroy and Mike Nolan, Chicago Sun-Times, 5 November 2013.

Conclusion: Filters Work, the Community Decides, Libraries Should Revisit Not Filtering

That is the kind of false information ALA OIF trains people to say, to mislead communities.  That is why what FCC's representative Lisa Hone said is so important for people to know:

1. Library filters work, 
2. Having them is a community decision, and 
3. Libraries should revisit past decisions not to use CIPA filters due to tremendous technological advances.

Brava, Lisa Hone!


NOTE ADDED 16 AUGUST 2014:

Major goof, folks.  I thought the speaker was Marijke Visser of ALA.  It was actually Lisa Hone of FCC, even better.  Even more authoritative.  So now, not only has CIPA's author said ALA misleads communities about CIPA, not only has ACLU said filters work, but now the FCC itself is saying filters work, communities should get them if they want, and recalcitrant libraries should rethink their past opposition to filters.

Therefore, I have changed the article above to change the speaker's name, title, place of work, picture, and caption, otherwise the information remains accurate.

I thank Alan S. Inouye, Ph.D., Director, Office for Information Technology Policy (OITP) for noticing this error.  I listened several times and did not pick up the change in speakers.  Listen yourselves and you'll see what I mean.

You'll even hear FCC's Jonathan Chambers make other statements in support of CIPA and filters that I had not reported above, not letting the librarians try to pressure him into making concessions that would have eviscerated CIPA.  Lobbying, they call it, they have an entire office for it.  It's really an effort to take away your legal rights without your even knowing.

CIPA's author says filters work.  Now FCC says it too.  Even ACLU said filters work, and ACLU worked with ALA to lose big before the US Supreme Court when trying to overturn CIPA.  It's only OIF that says otherwise—"lonely joker on a shelf," as Sir Paul McCartney would put it.

Saul Alinsky Rule #1 is "Power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you have."  Or as Joe Walsh put it, "If you just act like you know what you're doin' everybody thinks that you do." People should stop thinking ALA OIF knows what its doin' regarding library filters and should realize it is intentionally misleading.  FCC, CIPA's author, and even US v. ALA co-plaintiff ACLU say library filters work.  When OIF says they don't work, it's old dogma designed to mislead, like its leader Barbara Jones already was forced into admitting on that NPR station.  Don't buy it.


NOTE ADDED 9 MAY 2015:

Updated to update web link.

URL of this page:  safelibraries.blogspot.com/2014/08/visser.html

On Twitter:  @FCC @Istook @OIF @OITP @OrlandPkLibrary

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