Eye On Boise

Lawmakers: Pornography has ‘permeated our society,’ library filters backed

Posted by Betsy

March 14, 2011 10:10 a.m. • 11 comments

Idaho libraries would be required to filter Internet access for adults, under legislation that just passed the House on a 63-7 vote and headed to the Senate; they're already required by federal law to filter Internet access for children. Rep. Mack Shirley, R-Rexburg, said a group called “Citizens for Decency” brought the idea to him. “As a result, I've done a lot of personal research into this topic,” he told the House. “My personal research has convinced me that pornography poses one of the greatest destructive forces … on the youth.”

Under the bill, HB 205, local library boards could set their own policies for whether adults doing “legitimate research” could request to have the filtering turned off or not. Shirley said librarians opposed the bill, in part because of concerns about costs and about the 1st Amendment, but he said others supported it. At one small library, he said, “Big lumberjacks would come in from out in the timber and get into material they shouldn't, and there'd be youths sitting right next to them.” That small library now has a free Internet filter program, he said, which solved the problem.

Rep. Shirley Ringo, D-Moscow, who was among those voting against the bill, said, “I'm curious about whether this might not be something that local boards and communities can figure out for themselves.” Shirley responded that 25 other states have enacted legislation on school and library Internet filtering.

Rep. Linden Bateman, R-Idaho Falls, said pornography pervades our nation, as a result of Supreme Court decisions from 1925 on and “the handmaiden of the Supreme Court, the ACLU.” He said, “Now the sewers have been opened and pornography has flooded the entire country. And all of this was done without really taking children into the equation.” Bateman said “just one powerful exposure” to pornography can “devastate the life of the child.” He said, “It's been so permeated our society you can't avoid it. It's been thrust upon us, it's everywhere.” He urged support for the bill, which now moves to the Senate side.

11 comments on this post so far. Add yours!

eagleproducer on March 14 at 10:19 a.m.
Step off the Mayflower, pilgrims, and loosen the buckles on those shoes…
BlueIdahos on March 14 at 10:25 a.m.
Who were the 7?
BobEly on March 14 at 10:48 a.m.
Why, BlueIdahos, does Rush want to know?
eagleproducer on March 14 at 11:55 a.m.
BobEly: More like McCarthy…
fromadistance on March 14 at 12:49 p.m.
I’d like to know who the courageous 7 are as well.

This was a very poorly-written and costly bill. And it accomplishes nothing that local libraries weren’t already doing - policing their own internet computers.

If we have to follow “25 other states”, can’t we at least be original? This is plagiarized from Utah. Oh, I forget. Idaho is Utah north.
slfisher on March 14 at 2:26 p.m.
Tom Trail and several Democrats.
Lisa on March 14 at 2:40 p.m.
So when is the Idaho Legislature going to bring a bill “Ban All Earthquakes and resulting Tsunamis”?????
Sisyphus on March 14 at 3:09 p.m.
Utah is the largest consumer of porn.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/160566/utah_online_porn_capital_of_america.html
straighttalk on March 14 at 3:59 p.m.
NAYS — Buckner-Webb, Chew, Killen, King, Ringo, Rusche, Trail
eagleproducer on March 14 at 7:41 p.m.
Will this bill create any jobs?
Racingmom on March 15 at 11:28 a.m.
I find this article offensive in so many ways! The ACLU must be the devil’s spawn to actually open the floodgates of porn which is destined to devastate the life of every single child that happens to see naked body. I feel like I have just been chastised by the preacher for sneaking a peek at mom’s Playgirl. Government control is bad enough, but when it comes with such a healthy dose of self-righteousness it’s downright sickening.

Although, the part about the lumberjack was pretty funny. I could just picture this big, burley guy in a coon-skin hat and brown leather jacket – you know, the kind with the fringe on it, emerging out of the woods to sneak a peek at porn at the city library. From the way the author makes it sound, it’s amazing that this back-woods lumberjack even knows what the internet is. Give me a break! And besides, wouldn’t it be easier to just by a porn magazine – that way he could take it back in the woods with him to share with the other riff-raff out in the timber…