“Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:32)
Several of my readers have told me how surprised they were to learn that a child could walk into a public library and access pornography through the Internet.
But one reader really struck a chord with me.
“I don’t disagree with you about pornography and children,” he said, “but how do you get around the Constitution. Children, just like the rest of us, have a First Amendment right, even if it involves indecent materials. The Constitution makes no distinction about age.”
Most of us would agree with him. Perhaps that explains why we take such a lackadaisical attitude towards trying to change long-standing practices in public institutions that do not conform to our Christian principles–We will be made to look like we don’t support the Constitutional rights of others. So rather than seek to educate those who determine what we are allowed to do and say in our public institutions, we look the other way with a live and let-live philosophy. Is it any wonder our children can’t pray in school the way we did?
My friend is right: The Constitution doesn’t make any distinction about age when it comes to the First Amendment rights of children. But that doesn’t mean it’s okay to allow them to walk into a public library and look at or read anything that their little hearts desire as long as they have the permission of their parents. If that were true, then how can we create laws prohibiting the sale of tobacco products to a minor? Think about it, we won’t let a child go to a store and buy a pack of cigarettes, but it’s okay to allow them to use a computer terminal and poison their minds with pornography? As my dad use to say, “That just doesn’t hold water.”
Interestingly, the author of one of the country’s leading textbooks on the First Amendment, William W. Van Alstyne, a professor at the Duke University School of Law, also doesn’t agree with my friend about a child’s right to access pornography over the Internet at a public library.
“Children don’t have the same First Amendment rights as adults”, said Van Alstyne, “though they do have some First Amendment rights.” He argues that children’s right to free speech “are diminished in direct proportion to youth—the younger the child, the greater the degree of permissible regulation of what he may have access to”.
Van Alstyne points out that the rule of thumb stems from the same common sense reasoning that would hold that our children should have limited access to cars or matches, depending on their maturity. “There isn’t any doubt that at some age it is preposterous that a child has a right to go to a store and buy matches. At that point, he has neither the experience nor the gray matter to act in his own best interest.”
Most public library officials across the country are being advised by the likes of the American Civil Liberties Union and the American Library Association that they cannot filter Internet access at their libraries for children. The advice is based upon a recent federal district court ruling emanating out of eastern Virginia that outlawed a Loudoun County, Virginia public library from filtering Internet access on its terminals.
But what these legal eagles are not saying is the Loudoun County Library was filtering Internet access for any library user. While I agree with the implementation of such a policy, the problem is the Constitution does not. It’s crystal clear, at least for now, that adults have the right to unfettered access to Web sites, and that’s why the Court held for the plaintiff in the case.
But Van Alstyne argues that a policy that filters Internet usage for children is not likely to get the cool reception in the federal courts that the ACLU and the ALA predict. “It is almost certain to win judicial acceptance by the Courts,” he recently told one reporter.
So you see, it’s real important that we don’t get rattled by half-truths that the spin meisters use to win us, or library officials, over to their side. Just because God expects us to respect those who are seated in government, doesn’t mean that we can’t question a policy that we believe is morally wrong, and give our officials the ammunition to change it.
So if your library has not yet installed filters on its computers, ask God to help them right what is a serious wrong with their Internet usage policy. And when they do, be the first to applaud them for the showing the courage to admit that their “tap on the shoulder” policy is not in the best interest of your children or your community.
Share on Facebook