The Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) is a federal law enacted by Congress to address concerns about access to offensive content over the Internet on school and library computers. CIPA imposes certain types of requirements on any school or library that receives funding for Internet access or internal connections from the E-rate program – a program that makes certain communications technology more affordable for eligible schools and libraries. See FCC for additional information.
Viewing offensive content on library computers is against the HPL Internet Policy. Staff are responsible for acting when they see customers viewing images that are offensive whether it is seen by a customer or by staff.
1) What do I do if someone is accessing obscene images?
Whether or not the filter has been disabled is not the issue. Viewing pornography at the library is the issue. If any staff witnesses a violation, the customer’s access must be terminated immediately. All violations of the Internet Use Policy must be addressed promptly and professionally.
Remain calm during the procedure. Tell customers violating the policy that
they are in violation of library policy and state and federal law,
they must terminate their Internet session immediately, and
for a first offense, they are suspended for 90 days as per Library Security Policy and they must leave the facility
Complete an Incident Report
2) What do I do if someone is accessing “child pornography”?
Staff should immediately contact the police and city security. Child Pornography is a crime.
3) What if a customer appears to be viewing a questionable website, but insists that the site is not pornographic or obscene? This applies to both filtered and unfiltered terminals
If the customer has the URL, check the address through a filtered machine to see if it is blocked.
If the website is blocked as pornography, refer to the procedures described in #1 and #2 above.
If the website is not blocked, you will need to assess the content by referring to the DEFINITIONS section of the CIPA document
If the content is assessed by staff as pornographic and/or obscene, refer to the procedures described in #1 and #2 above.
Staff will also need to submit a “Misclassified Web Site Comment Form” (located on the Intranet under Policy Exhibit 4.8.1) or email the Chief of Library Materials Selection and the Head of Collection Development.
If the content is assessed by staff as not being pornographic and/or obscene, apologize to customer and explain that we must follow certain procedures in order to comply with our policies and the law.
If the website is blocked, but not as pornography, the customer can fill out the “Misclassified Web Site Comment Form” (located on the Intranet under Policy Exhibit 4.8.1) or email the Chief of Library Materials Selection and the Head of Collection Development. The customer may also use the form provided by SmartFilter on the blocked content page, which will be assessed by the Chief of Library Materials Selection.
The customer will be notified if the status of that particular website is changed. The website cannot be accessed until a decision has been made.
The legal definitions of pornography, obscenity, and harmful to minors may also be shared with customers.
4) Must a library employee witness a customer accessing obscene images before approaching the customer? Or, is it sufficient if a customer witnesses the violation of policy?All customer complaints must be investigated. However, if a staff member witnesses a violation, then that staff member is obligated to act.
5) If customer is viewing an unlawful site, then why must he or she leave the facility?
Since the violator agreed to the terms of Internet Use Policy 4.8 that he or she would obey the library rules, and the law, staff must enforce the Library Policy 2.3 C. Policy states that after letting the person know that they are in violation; the person is asked to leave and suspended.
If the customer that has violated CIPA returns to the building and fails to comply with the policy and law, staff has no choice but to call the police.
6) What should a staff member do when a customer has a legitimate reason for accessing a blocked site?
For complete instructions on disabling the Smart Filter see the CIPA FAQ Sheet on the Intranet.
Staff may disable the Smart Filter for customers over the age of 18 who requests it for lawful purposes.
Age must be verified with photo ID (or Powercard)
Give them a copy of the Internet Use Policy to read.
Contact IT for username and password.
Unfiltered access is done on a per-search basis and should be monitored by staff as much as is possible.
Once the lawful search has been completed, the staff should turn the Smart Filter back on for the terminal (by logging off the computer).
If the customer is deemed to be looking at sites for unlawful purposes, then follow the steps outlined above and on the CIPA FAQ Sheet.