Unfiltered internet use by minors in public and school libraries and classrooms might pose a larger threat of harm than books under the library records confidentiality section of S.220
by Renee McGuinness
Parents’ access to their child’s library use was already limited despite the lowered age because: 1) Library use records are only available while a book is currently checked out; 2) Past records are not available unless a book is past due or there is an unpaid late fee; 3) Minors can read books in libraries without formally checking them out.
S.220 passed out of the House Committee on Government Operations and Military Affairs 8-3-1 on May 1, with Republican Representatives Higley, Hango, and Morgan voting “no” because of the lowered age. It will now go to the full House for a vote.
Lack of internet filter protections for curious, tech-savvy youth leaves minors at risk of harm caused by accidental or intentional access to obscene or inappropriate materials and on-line predators. The National Institute of Health reports that, “Adolescent pornography use has continuously increased over time and the age of first exposure to sexually explicit materials has also been getting younger,” and that 68.4% reported exposure to online pornography in the USA.
Just as parents can install apps to block, monitor, and limit their child’s cell-phone use to protect them while preserving their privacy, providing internet filters on public computers would also protect our children.
Vermont Family Alliance (VFA) requested during testimony that the Committee amend S.220 to include mandatory compliance with the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) | Federal Communications Commission (fcc.gov) in all public libraries and schools, which offers the financial incentive of greatly reduced internet services costs for schools and libraries that comply with CIPA internet filtering software requirements. The Vermont Agency of Education has information on e-rates and a link to an application, and Central Vermont Supervisory Union already complies with CIPA. The Committee did not consider VFA’s request.
Catherine Delneo, State Librarian and Commissioner of the Vermont Department of Libraries, confidently shared during her testimony of her adolescent daughter’s proclamation that she will always talk about the books she is reading with her parents and asserted that lowering the age to 12+ doesn’t affect most families, only those families in which adolescents are “at risk,” “have a specific health or safety need,” or “whose intellectual interests may fall outside their parents’ interests.”
Delneo implemented Vermont’s new e-book system, Palace, an app that provides access to audiobooks and eBooks from multiple vendors. The Palace Project proclaims, “libraries are the Palaces for the People,” and offers a Banned Book Club.
Representative Michael Mrowicki, who declined to accept a written copy of VFA’s testimony, stated that public libraries are sacred institutions. VFA told the Committee that families are sacred institutions that no individual, organization, or government entity has a right to undermine, and that there is a system of due process under the Vermont Department of Children and families in suspected cases of neglect and abuse.
The legislature’s focus on lowering the age at which minors can make adult decisions regarding mental health care, sexual activity, sexually transmitted infection (STI) treatments, and controlling the solutions when a minor is questioning or struggling with gender identity and sexual attraction, without pro-actively including parents in these important decision-making processes, despite the age of majority is 18 under 1 V.S.A. § 173, is disastrous for children and families.
Further, the Vermont Agency of Education claims, under misinterpretation of the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) that schools must keep gender identity private from students’ parents.
According to comments by some of the representatives on the committee, the justification for lowering the age to 12 is based upon the belief that if children are afraid to talk with their parents about certain topics, there is already a breakdown in the parent-child relationship, or the parent is unaccepting. VFA finds this to be judgmental and assuming of parents, who know and love their own children more than any other adult in their lives and know their individual children’s readiness for sensitive topics – a readiness that can vary among siblings.
S.220 will do a “drive-by” through the House Committee on Education before going to the House floor for a final vote.