ALAWON: American Library Association Washington Office Newsline Volume 11, Number 50 June 11, 2002 In This Issue: CIPA/NCIPA Requirements ALA is very pleased that a Federal Court has ruled that CIPA requirements for filtering in public libraries are unconstitutional. However, please note that the decision was limited and did not eliminate all requirements for all libraries that receive E-Rate discounts. In the first place, school libraries are NOT covered by the decision and are still subject to the full provisions of CIPA. Nothing has changed for them. Furthermore, it is our understanding that under the current FCC order, public libraries receiving E-rate discounts for Internet access and/or internal connections are still covered by NCIPA ("Neighborhood Children's Internet Protection Act"), while libraries that receive discounts for telecommunications services only are not covered. Libraries that are part of a consortium's E-rate application for Internet services and/or internal connections are also covered under NCIPA. Under NCIPA, libraries that are covered must review their existing Acceptable Use Policies to make sure that they conform to the Internet Safety Policy requirements of the Act. These sections have been specifically assigned to local decision-making. No federal agency is permitted to establish criteria for how a library is to address the elements below. Nor may a federal agency review decisions made by local library authorities, or even consider the criteria a library used in making those decisions. There are six specific requirements for an Internet use policy that conforms to NCIPA. Review your policy carefully and compare it with these requirements. Check the box on the left if your current Internet use policies include these elements. IF you can already check off all six of the boxes, congratulations! Your policies already meet the NCIPA requirements. If there are elements missing, you should draft a plan to update your policy. You must also conduct a publicly noticed open meeting or hearing on the "Internet Safety Policy." These meetings must be completed no later than June 30, 2002. __ My library board has held a publicly noticed open meeting or hearing to discuss the Internet use policies in place or proposed. __ My Internet use policies address "access by minors to inappropriate matter on the Internet and World Wide Web." __ My Internet use policies address the safety and security of minors when using electronic mail, chat rooms, and other forms of direct electronic communications. __ My Internet use policies address unauthorized access, including so-called "hacking" and other unlawful activities by minors online. __ My Internet use policies address unauthorized disclosure, use, and dissemination of personal identification information regarding minors. __ My Internet use policies address measures designed to restrict minors' access to materials harmful to minors. We expect that the Federal Communications Commission and the Schools and Libraries Division (SLD) will have further guidance for E-rate applicants out very soon. Watch the SLD web site (www.sl.universalservice.org) for further information and updates. At ALA's Annual meeting the E-Rate Task Force will host a forum at which SLD staff, FCC staff, and an attorney from Jenner and Block, ALA's legal council on the lawsuit, will discuss the future of the E-Rate program. The Forum will be held on Saturday, June 15th from 1-4pm at the GWCC Room B301. You may want to examine sample AUPs from other libraries - the American Library Association has a number of examples on their web site: http://www.ala.org/alaorg/oif/internetusepolicies.html. Other good resources in this area are: Responsible Netizen - http://netizen.uoregon.edu (more school oriented), and for background, the GetNetWise Safety Guide - http://www.getnetwise.org/safetyguide/, and SafeKids and SafeTeens - http://www.SafeKids.com and http://www.SafeTeens.com. ****** ALAWON (ISSN 1069-7799) is a free, irregular publication of the American Library Association Washington Office. All materials subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be reprinted or redistributed for noncommercial purposes with appropriate credits. To subscribe to ALAWON, send the message: subscribe ala-wo [your_firstname] [your_lastname] to listproc@ala.org or go to http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon. To unsubscribe to ALAWON, send the message: unsubscribe ala-wo to listproc@ala.org. ALAWON archives at http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon. ALA Washington Office, 1301 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Suite 403, Washington, D.C. 20004-1701; phone: 202.628.8410 or 800.941.8478 toll-free; fax: 202.628.8419; e-mail: alawash@alawash.org; Web site: http://www.ala.org/washoff. Executive Director: Emily Sheketoff. Office of Government Relations: Lynne Bradley, Director; Camille Bowman, Mary Costabile, Don Essex, Patrice McDermott and Miriam Nisbet. Office for Information Technology Policy: Rick Weingarten, Director; Jennifer Hendrix, Carrie Russell, Claudette Tennant. ALAWON Editor: Bernadette Murphy.