Electronic Frontier Foundation

About the author: The Electronic Frontier Foundation works to protect privacy and freedom of expression in the arena of computers and the Internet.

Legislation that forces libraries and schools that receive federal funding to install Internet filters is misguided and violates the First Amendment. Filtering software relies on subjective and biased criteria to determine which websites will be accessible and often blocks sites with no offensive material. Most important, such software causes harm to the First Amendment-protected right to read material that is constitutionally protected for all Americans. In addition, such legislation—in particular the Children's Internet Protection Act and the Neighborhood Child Internet Protection Act—is costly, ignores the capabilities and responsibilities of libraries, forces one system of morality onto...