An Internet Safety Bill That Librarians at Last Can Love
Joan Oleck -- School Library Journal, 12/14/2007 2:00:00 PM
From the folks who brought you the failed Deleting Online Predators Act (DOPA) and the successful but little loved Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA), comes a legislative initiative that librarians may love.
It's a proposed $25 million to 50 million worth of grants over five years designed to boost Internet safety education rather than limitations on who can view what online.
The main problem is deciding who will get the grants. Squabbling has erupted among online safety organizations over that issue.
The House funding bill, H.R. 4134, sponsored by Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-CA), actually passed November 13, while S. 2344, sponsored by Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ), is scheduled for mark-up this week. The American Library Association (ALA) approves. The ALA "has consistently promoted education as the most effective route to Internet safety," says Lynne Bradley, director of the Office of Government Relations.
The Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT), which aims to preserve democratic values in the new digital world, echoed the ALA this week, issuing a recommendation of "strongly supports" for passage of the Senate bill.
The funding initiative is "precisely the type of child safety bill that Congress should be passing," CDT added in its email to supporters. "Two blue-ribbon panels established by Congress to investigate how best to protect children in the online environment concluded that the most effective way to protect kids online is to combine education with the voluntary use of filtering and other technology tools to empower parents to decide what content their children should access," CDT wrote.
Importantly, the two bills differ on how they would distribute funds. The House bill would appropriate $25 million with i-SAFE specifically named as a recipient. i-SAFE is a nonprofit foundation which combines classroom curriculum and community outreach to promote online safety. Competitive grants offered through 2012 and "subject to the availability of the funds" would be disbursed to other organizations; but there is no guarantee that funds would be available after the disbursement to i-SAFE, at the discretion of the U.S. Attorney General.
The Senate bill, in contrast, offers an open grant competition "to provide for age-appropriate Internet education." Activists and groups not named as recipients of guaranteed funds have banded together into a coalition pushing for the Senate version of the bill. They include the Consortium for School Networking, the Family Online Safety Institute, WiredSafety.org, and others.
