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The article reports on the efforts of some Republican members of the U.S. Congress to expand the Children's Internet Protection Act in response to the spate of online predators contacting children through sites like MySpace. The Deleting Online Predators Act would require schools and libraries to also block instant messaging, online e-mail, wikis and blogs. The American Library Association opposes this motion.

Reports on a decision by the Metropolitan Library Commission in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, to require that all library computers be filtered. Advice which was given from the American Library Association (ALA) regarding compliance with the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA); Comments of library spokesman Scott Carter; The library's earlier filtering of children's access.

States that the Canadian Library Association introduced the web-based tool kit, Net Safe, Net Smart. Content of the kit which helps libraries manage and communicate about Internet use in the library; Issues of Internet access, filtering, and children.

Reports on the use of filtering software. Approval by the Pennsylvania House of Representatives of a bill that requires public libraries to install filtering software because of concern about sexual predators using libraries to access pornography and prey on children; Effect of a Library of Congress copyright ruling on filter company CyberPatrol's lawsuit; Concern that the filters on computers in the children's sections of Montgomery County Library in Maryland are defective; How a filtering policy in Nevada gives children more Internet access.

Reports that the Utah Legislature has passed a bill which bars state funds from any public library which does not restrict access by minors to obscene material on the Internet. Lack of a proposal for the type of restrictive mechanism that libraries should utilize; Sentiments of Utah librarians; When the bill takes effect; Passage of a similar bill in the West Virginia House of Delegates.

The article discusses "Fencing out Knowledge: Impacts of the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA) 10 Years Later," a report from the American Library Association (ALA) regarding Internet filters in schools and libraries. Topics include the impact they have on low-income children, how the Internet has changed since CIPA first passed, and why some librarians consider filtering software to be censorship.

The article announces that the state of Virginia has passed a state version of the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA) which requires libraries to use computer filters to block materials that are harmful to minors such as pornography and obscenities. Reportedly, the act does provide for disablement of the filter should a patron make a request.

Reports that a divided U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments on March 5, 2003 about the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA) of 2000, which has been blocked by legal challenges from the American Library Association and others. Specifics of CIPA, which would require that public and school libraries receiving federal funding for computers to filter all Internet terminals for material 'harmful to minors'; Arguments for and against CIPA; Overturning by the Supreme Court of the Communications Decency Act; Opinions of individual Justices.

States that the American Library Association (ALA) and its allies responded to various legal briefs filed in the United States by the Solicitor General and others in the children's Internet Proctection Act (CIPA) case. Issue of CIPA being unconstitutional in its effort to control Internet access and availability of obscene material; Argument that filtering software blocks too much and does not differentiate between adult use and use by minors; Details of the ALA brief; Others filing briefs with the ALA.

Reports on grievances filed by several staffers at the Ottawa Public Library in Ontario. Issue of the library's unrestricted Internet access policy; Efforts of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) to change library policy; How staffers are forced to see sexually explicit material; Outlook for privacy screens on all public access computers and filters; How the controversy in Ottawa has affected other librarians.

Reports on the findings of a study of Internet filtering that the Kaiser Family Foundation conducted. Initiation of the study by the Children's Internet Protection Act; Filters used by schools and libraries; Finding that filters can block pornography without significantly impeding access to online health information but only if filters are not set at high levels; Blocked access to health information when filters are set at high levels.

Reports on the dismissal of a library-related lawsuit in California. Statement that a suit intended to force the Livermore, California public library to filter the Internet has been dismissed twice and, as of April, 2001, is in appeals court; Decision that libraries cannot be penalized for providing minors with access to Internet content posted by a third party.

Focuses on an episode of 'Dr. Laura' in which Dr. Laura Schlessinger chided libraries that allow children to use the Internet without filtration. Her focus on the Denver Public Library in Colorado; Details of the show; Comments of Rick Ashton, director of the Denver Public Library.

Focuses on software filter-makers who are threatening legal action against critics who have reverse-engineered programs to show that filters wrongly block material. Details of I-Gear and Microsystems' lists of web sites deemed unsuitable for children; Allegations of the American Library Association (ALA) that the software companies are not interested in the public good; Impact of Internet filtering on the gay community.