by Barbara Miner

About the author: Barbara Miner is the managing editor of Rethinking Schools.

Imagine if an unknown person came into your school library every month and removed books from the shelves. You would never be told which books were being taken or why, other than that someone, somewhere, deemed them "inappropriate," "indecent," "radical," "tasteless," or "gross." Imagine if the books included works on the Holocaust, Islam, AIDS/HIV, gay rights, the National Organization for Women, or the International Workers of the World union.

Couldn't ever happen? Guess again.

Filters Block More than Pornography

Under the guise of protecting children from "smut" and "indecency," Internet filtering programs routinely block access to thousands of World Wide Web pages, chat rooms, newsgroups and other Internet options—including the topics listed above. What's more, if Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) gets his...