Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA)

Greetings all,

I realize that the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA) and requirements that flow from CIPA are something that we have not discussed recently; it is probably a good time to share this information.

In a nutshell, CIPA is the Children's Internet Protection Act. It requires any school or library (like HPL) 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 follow certain guidelines when it comes to accessing content on the Internet.

Under CIPA, we must have filtering software in place and policies that do not allow customers to access pictures that are: a) obscene; b) child pornography; or c) harmful to minors. This is a part of our Internet Use Policy, which indicates that users may not: "Circumvent filtering or blocking software, or other security measures to access visual depictions deemed (a) obscene, or (b) child pornography, or (c) harmful to minors, as defined in the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA ~ Public Law 106-554)."

In order to assist with enforcing this, we have provided a handout that is adopted from the original training materials produced back when CIPA was introduced. This handout is available on the Reference page of HPL's Intranet. I have also added a link to this document on the Resources page of this blog under the "How to..." heading. The document provides definitions for the three prevented areas mentioned above using Texas Penal Code and the United States Code.

If you would like more information on CIPA, there is a nice summary on the FCC's web site.

Please let me know if you have any questions about this.

Thanks,
Mike VC