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Internet filtering debate brings in national groups, divides Michigan community


In this story:

Library: 'It's a non-issue'

Trying to protect children

Technology doesn't measure up

The cost of principles

RELATED STORIES, SITES icon



February 21, 2000
Web posted at: 5:13 p.m. EST (2213 GMT)

(CNN) -- The normally cordial, polite community of Holland, Michigan, home to about 37,000, has become a free speech battleground.

It's all leading up to Tuesday's vote. However, the fiercest battle in Holland won't be over presidential candidates George W. Bush or John McCain, but instead whether to force the local library to install filtering software on all but one of its Internet-capable computers.

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A debate over filtering software is nothing new. Children and pornography are easy hot-button issues, and libraries are famous for their rigid adherence to free speech. Judges, library boards and city government have unilaterally caused filters to be installed in libraries scattered throughout the nation. But what makes this debate different is a rather unusual part of Holland's city rules.

In Holland, any proposal can appear on a voting ballot if proponents gather 2,000 signatures. A local chapter of the conservative American Family Association met the quota, and now the Michigan Republican primary will have to share the headlines with a proposal to install Internet filters at Herrick District Library.

As the primaries roll on, the Bush-McCain battle has grown increasingly heated, but it's nothing compared to Holland's fight. Fueled by national groups providing organization and funds, religious beliefs, concerns over the welfare of children and freedom of speech, this conflict has seen its share of shrill voices and personal attacks.

Library: 'It's a non-issue'

It all started when a mother found a sexually explicit book in the library, according to Gary Glenn, president of the American Family Association of Michigan. The local AFA chapter then brought in a speaker from Cincinnati, a veteran of that city's fight with Hustler publisher Larry Flynt. The speaker told concerned parents about another source of pornography they hadn't considered -- the Internet.

Those families approached the library board, appointed from the townships and cities the library serves. The board said it was happy with the current policy, which encourages the supervision of minors but stresses the availability of Internet access for any individual.

"We have the ability, if a patron is creating a disturbance, to ask them to remove themselves from the site or leave the library. We also have a full-time person that can see every workstation," said Gary Pullano, public relations coordinator for the library. "It's a policy that's been in effect for four years and has worked extremely well."

Pullano could think of only "a half a dozen" instances where library staff had to get involved, and none of them could be characterized as involving anyting "pornographic or illegal."

"It's a non-issue, we don't have a problem. To this day, we don't have a problem."

Trying to protect children

Even filtering opponents agree the library doesn't have much of a problem. Still, they want to make sure that children don't see even a glimpse of pornographic material. They also believe that much goes unreported.

"I work in counseling and see the effects of pornography. We have people telling us they are able to get it at the library," says LoriJo Schepers, co-chair of the Holland area Citizens Voting Yes to Protect Our Children and director of Barnabas Ministries, a Christian counseling organization. "It's not rampant, and we can credit the library for that."

Many debates have a symbol, something that proponents can rally around. In this one, the symbol is 'Chocolate Chip Cookies.' Brian J. Bowe, a reporter for the local Holland Sentinel, wrote about parent Elaine Mokma's claim about what her daughter found on a library computer.

"She typed in 'Chocolate Chip Cookies,' hit the search button and immediately there appeared before her eyes a picture of a nude woman," Mokma says.

Bowe says he was inundated with reader mail saying that such a thing was preposterous. When CNN Interactive tested every major search engine from Yahoo! and Google to Northern Light and AltaVista, those search terms didn't return a nude picture or a pornographic site on the first page of results. The story seems to have transformed a bit, like a game of 'Telephone.' Glenn said he heard the picture was of a man masturbating, another person said it showed two people involved in a sex act.

Still, most Internet users can recount at least one situation in which they've accidentally stumbled upon a pornographic site. With page-jacking, intentionally confusing domain names and other Web site tricks, embarrassing situations can occur at home or even at work. That's the kind of situation that Schepers' group wants to avoid.

Technology doesn't measure up

But how good is the solution? Internet filtering software is famously inexact. They block legitimate and educational sites and allow pornographic images. Some filtering companies refuse to release the lists of the sites they block, and others -- like Apple's new KidSafe software -- actually block almost everything by default, only allowing a relatively tiny list of approved sites.

This doesn't frustrate Schepers, though. "While they're not perfect, it's still a lot better than not having them," she says.

The library spokesman, on the other hand, maintains that there isn't a problem at the library -- and still doesn't trust filters.

"We've shown over and over in demonstrations that [filters are] not foolproof and provide a false sense of security," Pullano says. "We also rely on the fact that our policy has always worked. We have adult supervision on a regular basis, and we don't see a need for ineffective technology maintained by private companies. We see that as a restrictive speech issue."

The battle won't end with Tuesday's vote. First off, only the city of Holland will be able to vote for or against the filters, and Holland only represents a third of the library's customers. The townships around Holland won't get a direct voice.

If Holland's overwhelmingly Republican electorate pass the measure, the library board still may not institute the filters. They are not directly elected by the voters and have indicated that they will risk losing city funding rather than filter content. That may cause fiscal trouble for the city of Holland if the city's bond rating is lowered.

If the measure fails, Glenn vows that the AFA will continue to take the same fight to other communities and attempt to influence the state legislature to take action. Locally, however, Schepers indicated a more subdued tactic my be used.

"Even if we lose, we still have the opportunity to influence the library board to do it. If the individuals that they represent are saying we want this to take place, that's a pretty foolish individual not to listen to the people they represent," she says. "The reality is that the nasty stuff is only going to happen if they don't go along with what the people vote."

The cost of principles

And no matter what the outcome, the fight has left a deep mark on Holland. It has attracted the attention of national organizations -- the AFA, the conservative Family Research Council and the American Library Association -- as well as the national media.

"Emotions have been running high," said reporter Bowe. "You have people on either side yelling pretty loudly. It has dominated the news coverage here, and brought a lot of outside attention. Holland isn't used to attention from national media outlets."

The AFA and FRC have pumped a lot of money into the debate --estimated at about $42,000 for both groups. That's more dollars than there are residents in the city, and it has paid for radio and television commercials, rallies and mailings.

With all that money and the loud voices, the quality of the rhetoric has dipped pretty low at times, Bowe said.

"Debate has gotten ugly in spots. In normal issues, the debate is generally very cordial. You don't tend to see personal attacks, which we've seen some of here."

In one of Bowe's first stories about the issue, he quoted Mike Noordijk of the anti-filtering Families for Internet Access. Noordijk related a story from his time in Cincinnati, where libraries were forced to install filters. He lamented that many of his favorite sites were blocked, including the popular newspaper parody site The Onion.

The AFA and FRC then checked out The Onion, and read content it found objectionable. Bowe said a city-wide mailing quoted his story saying that Noordijk liked The Onion, then proceeded to call him anti-Christian and anti-Semitic, based on some of the parody stories found on that site.

Just recently, pro-filtering placards on private property were defaced by a vandal spray-painting over the signs.

Library spokesman Pullano also worries about what this fight has done to Holland, and thinks there's enough blame to go around.

"The mayor has been vocal in believing it has divided the community. The city has a record of discussing issues face-to-face, not in widespread media campaigns dividing the communities, Pullano says. "It's a division of opinion, and it's not all fact-based on either side. On both sides there are things they wish they wouldn't have said."




RELATED STORIES:
Trying to keep kids from Web's dark side
May 20, 1999
The Onion's pungent take on the century that was
April 01, 1999

RELATED SITES:
Family Research Council
American Family Association
City of Holland, Michigan
American Library Association
The Library of Michigan

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