WHITE HOUSE CLARIFIES VP GORE'S INTENT

[Sloan, Bernie]

FYI............

Bernie Sloan
Senior Library Information Systems Consultant
University of Illinois Office for Planning & Budgeting
338 Henry Administration Building
506 S. Wright Street
Urbana, IL  61801
Phone: (217) 333-4895  
Fax: (217) 333-6355
Email: bernies at uillinois.edu

> =================================================================
> ALAWON                                        Volume 7, Number 31
> ISSN 1069-7799                                     March 25, 1998
> 
>      American Library Association Washington Office Newsline
> 
> In this issue: (124 lines)
> 
> VICE PRESIDENT ISSUES STATEMENT ON CHILDREN AND THE INTERNET;
> WHITE HOUSE CLARIFIES INTENT
> _________________________________________________________________
> 
>  VICE PRESIDENT ISSUES STATEMENT ON CHILDREN AND THE INTERNET;
>                   WHITE HOUSE CLARIFIES INTENT
> 
> On March 23 Vice President Al Gore issued a statement on
> protecting children from inappropriate material on the Internet. 
> Although the statement is ambiguous and could be interpreted as
> indicating support for either Sen. John McCain's (R-AZ) filtering
> proposal or Sen. Conrad Burns's (R-MT) local Internet use policy
> alternative, ALA's inquiries to the White House have indicated
> that Vice President Gore intended his statement to be supportive
> of local-level decision making.
> 
> The Vice President's statement, appended in full below, is being
> interpreted by some technology press as supportive of Sen.
> McCain's bill, S. 1619, the Internet School Filtering Act, which
> would require libraries and schools that receive federal funds
> for Internet access to install software to block material
> inappropriate for children.  The bill was approved by the Senate
> Commerce Committee on March 12 but with a public agreement among
> the senators that, if two proposed amendments were withdrawn,
> there would be the opportunity to work out "compromise" language
> before the bill went to the full Senate.
> 
> One key White House staffer, Tom Kalil of the National Economic
> Council, has posted the following to several listservs: "Vice
> President Gore's statement is being misinterpreted in the press
> as calling for mandatory filtering.  Actually, he's calling for
> schools and libraries to develop acceptable use policies."
> 
> A CNet article on March 23, "Gore on fence about Net filtering,"
> (see http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,20361,00.html) quotes a
> White House spokeswoman who said, "The legislation        
> [Clinton and Gore] would support would not require blocking, it
> would just require that schools and libraries put a plan in place
> regarding their students and patrons accessing inappropriate
> material."
> 
> The article goes on to say: 
> 
>      If a community decides it wants to allow open access to all
>      online material, "inappropriate" content included: "If their
>      local values dictate that--then it is up to the school and
>      community," Gore's spokeswoman added.
> 
> The Vice President's statement (in full below) is also available
> online at http://library.whitehouse.gov/Week.cgi (look under the
> March 23 postings). 
> 
> [BEGIN GORE STATEMENT]
> 
> March 23, 1998
> 
> STATEMENT OF THE VICE PRESIDENT ON PROTECTING OUR CHILDREN
> FROM INAPPROPRIATE MATERIAL ON THE INTERNET 
> 
> Message Creation Date was at 23-MAR-1998 12:42:00
> 
> THE WHITE HOUSE
> 
> Office of the Vice President
> ___________________________________________________________
> For Immediate Release:     Contact:
> Monday, March 23, 1998     (202) 456-7035
> 
> 
> STATEMENT OF THE VICE PRESIDENT ON PROTECTING OUR CHILDREN FROM
> INAPPROPRIATE MATERIAL ON THE INTERNET
> 
>  As we connect every school and classroom to the Internet, we
> must protect our children from the red-light districts of
> cyberspace.  
> 
>  That is why the President and I are encouraging Congress to pass
> legislation that would require every school and library using the
> e-rate to develop a plan to protect their schoolchildren from
> inappropriate content.  The e-rate is a new federal program that
> provides as much as $2.25 billion a year to connect schools and
> libraries to the Internet.
> 
>  This legislation is not a "one-size-fits-all-approach" that
> mandates government values in our schools.   Instead, our plan
> will empower schools to make decisions based on local
> values--protecting children from inappropriate 
> material while also protecting the first amendment values we all
> hold dear.  
> 
>  We must bring the combined power of parents, teachers, and
> technology together if we are going to protect our students in a
> way that will work in every community and reflect the values of
> each community.
> 
>  I call on Congress to pass this legislation which protects our
> children from inappropriate material on the Internet and will do
> more than ever before to make cyberspace a safe space for our
> children.  
> 
> [END GORE STATEMENT]
> _________________________________________________________________
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> =================================================================