Starting July 1st, public libraries that wish to receive federal funding will be forced to install filtering software on the libraries' computers.
But most of New Hampshire's libraries have chosen to forgo the funding instead of censoring the internet.
NHPR's Rachel Estabrook has the story.
Andrea Thorpe says that filtering the internet is like ripping pages out of a book,
And that's something no right-thinking librarian would do.
Thorpe should know.
She's President of the New Hampshire Library Association.
She publicly encourages the state's libraries not to use computer programs that filter what can be seen on the internet.
Since President Clinton signed the Children's Internet Protection Act, or CIPA, back in 2000, schools receiving federal funds have been required to install filtering software on library computers.
But this is the first year the law will apply to local public libraries that want the federal assistance.
A quick check with Librarians around the state finds most will do without the help.
They complain that filtering software is still not sophisticated enough, and can block useful information along with any harmful information.
VOX: The Island of Smuttynose, you will not be able to search it through a filter, because of the word smut... do simple things, like do a search on Super Bowl 30 which was qualified as SB XXX... information on breast cancer, or even a chicken recipe, because the word breast is used.
The Manchester City Library does have filters on the computers in its children's room.
City Aldermen require it.
However, Manchester no longer qualifies to receive federal help because of what Thorpe calls one of the biggest flaws in the law.
TAPE: I'd have to put filters on even my staff machines. I'd have to pay to put the filters on the machines, and then turn them off all the time. But that's what the law states that I have to put it on every single machine in the building.
Besides any ethical hang-ups, libraries say filtering is just too expensive, and the e-rate application is too time-consuming.
Deborah Stone is a spokeswoman for the American Library Association, and she calls CIPA an unfunded mandate.
TAPE: Congress passed this law, requiring libraries to purchase and install filters in order to get money, but did not allow e-rate itself to be used to subsidize the purchase of the filters.
Stone says librarians across the country are maintaining that no matter what the cost, filters do not accomplish what they are intended to.
Most if not all of the state's libraries require parents to sign a permission slip allowing their children to use the internet.
She thinks instead of shielding children from information, we should educate them about how to filter for themselves.
Karen Testerman disagrees, saying that exposure to one explicit sexual image can harm a child for life.
Testerman is the director of Cornerstone Policy Research, a socially conservative think tank based in Concord.
She acknowledges that parents should play a role in monitoring their children, but says libraries should not depend on parental controls.
TAPE: at the libraries, that's a community facility. And most parents, if they wanted to expose their children to other things they can do that from their personal computers.
But support for CIPA is weak in New Hampshire.
In fact, State Librarian Michael York says that overall this has been an uncontroversial issue in the state, partly because the libraries here get a relatively small amount of money.
E-rate discounts are distributed as a percentage of the amount of money a library spends on its internet connection per month.
That percentage is based on the number of kids receiving free school lunches in that town, a number which is comparably low in the granite state.
When Manchester City Library applied for the e-rate discount two years ago, it qualified for a 50% reimbursement, a total of about $1700.
And that library serves the state's largest city.
For NHPR News, I'm Rachel Estabrook.
