Understanding CIPA

to Fight the Filter

Mark E. Moran

CEO, Dulcinea Media

Updated March 5, 2012

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Children’s Internet Protection Act

A federal law adopted and administered by the FCC

Applicable only to schools and libraries that get Internet funding from the E-rate program

Only penalty for non-compliance – school loses E-Rate funding.

FCC’s Summary Page:http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/cipa.html

FCC’s Release Adopting the Rules for CIPAwww.e-ratecentral.com/CIPA/fcc_01_120.pdf

CIPA Requirements

Schools must certify they have an Internet safety policy that includes technology protection measures.

The protection measures must block or filter Internet access to pictures that are: (a) obscene, (b) child pornography, or (c) harmful to minors (for computers that are accessed by minors).

Schools may disable the blocking or filtering measure during any use by an adult to enable access for bona fide research. Example: a teacher wants to read Alex Haley’s historic interviews on Playboy.com

Requirements (cont’d)

Schools must adopt & enforce a policy to monitor minors online.

Must adopt and implement an Internet safety policy addressing: 

(a)access by minors to inappropriate matter; (b)safety and security of minors when using e-mail & chat rooms(c)unauthorized access;(d)unauthorized disclosure, use, and dissemination of personal information; and(e)measures restricting minors’ access to harmful materials

CIPA contemplated that “harmful to minors” would be determined by each district, but FCC rules do not mandate this. Proposed revisions to rules would require it.

Requirements (cont’d)

Statutory definitions of harmful to minors: any picture, image, graphic image file, or other visual depiction that (A) taken as a whole and with respect to minors, appeals to a prurient interest in nudity, sex, or excretion; (B) depicts, describes, or represents, in a patently offensive way with respect to what is suitable for minors, an actual or simulated sexual act or sexual contact, actual or simulated normal or perverted sexual acts, or a lewd exhibition of the genitals; and (C) taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value as to minors.

No Certification of Effectiveness of Filter

FCC specifically refused to require certification of filter effectiveness, saying that such imposing a requirement; “does not comport with our goal of minimizing the burden we place on schools and libraries.”

“We presume Congress did not intend to penalize recipients that act in good faith & in a reasonable manner to implement available technology protection measures.” (Emphasis added)

FCC Does Not Police Filtering Practices

FCC noted that an ineffective filter could “engender concern of parents of students.”

FCC presumed "we will rarely, if ever, be called upon to look beyond th(e) certification.”

We have found no evidence that the FCC has ever brought an action against a school alleging that the school’s filter was ineffective.

However, note that, aside from CIPA, if an educator were to display material on a computer that was patently inappropriate for minors, then other criminal or disciplinary laws could apply.

FCC: Social Media Need Not Be Blocked

FTC, August 2011: “Although it is possible that certain individual Facebook or MySpace pages could potentially contain material harmful to minors, we do not find that these websites are per se ‘harmful to minors’ or fall into one of the categories that schools and libraries must block.”

Declaring such sites categorically harmful to minors would be inconsistent with the Protecting Children in the Twenty-First Century Act’s focus on “educating minors about appropriate on-line behavior, including interacting with other individuals on social networking websites and in chat rooms, and cyberbullying awareness and response.”

http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-11-125A1.doc

FCC Implements Protecting Children Act

Under The Protecting Children in the 21st Century Act, a school receiving e-Rate funding must certify to the FCC that it is educating minors about appropriate online behavior, including interacting with other individuals on social networking websites and in chat rooms, and cyberbullying awareness and response.

As the FCC alludes in its comments on the prior slide - how can a school educate students about appropriate use of social networking websites if those sites are entirely blocked in school?

Over-Filtering May Be Unconstitutional

Lawyer Nancy Willard notes that the implementation of CIPA was reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court. In her view, districts that implement the use of filtering in a manner that places a substantial burden on student access to constitutionally protected material may be violating a student's constitutional rights.

In February 2012, a federal judge issued an injunction barring a Missouri school district from allowing its Internet filters to block websites that offer positive viewpoints on gay people.

Nancy E. Willard, Safe and Responsible Use of the Internet: A Guide for Educators, citing United States v. American Library Association, No. 02-361 In the Supreme Court of the United States. (June 23, 2003) http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/02pdf/02-361.pdf

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/school_law/2012/02/injunction_bars_school_filteri.html

How to Avoid Over-Filtering

Willard recommend that districts should, among other things:

Have administrators determine what material should be blocked, not technology personnel or the filtering company

Block only the categories necessary to be blocked under CIPA

Establish effective procedures for teachers to rapidly override the filter when it is blocking access to educational material

Establish procedures to allow students to anonymously request a site be overridden to allow for access to sensitive material

Teachers Overriding Filters

In many school districts, the filter enables teachers to have passwords that permit them to override the filter to access certain blocked Websites.

For example, while many school districts block YouTube because a small portion of its content may be considered harmful to minors, many school districts also have a policy that permits teachers to override the filter to access and display educational videos on YouTube, and similar sites.

We have not uncovered any persuasive argument that such a policy violates CIPA, and find no evidence that the FCC has any interest in bringing an action alleging that it does.

CIPA Resources

Unquiet Library’s outstanding collection of resources on CIPA:http://www.theunquietlibrary.libguides.com/fight-the-filter

Doug Johnson on 7 Steps to Take to Fight Filters:http://doug-johnson.squarespace.com/blue-skunk-blog/2009/7/24/censorship-by-omission.html

MindShift: Straight from DOE Dispelling Myths About Blocked Siteshttp://mindshift.kqed.org/tag/cipa/

Center for Safe and Responsible Internet Usehttp://www.cyberbully.org