Library weighing options before 'filtering' content

COEUR d’ALENE — The delicate balancing act between protecting children and protecting civil liberties is once again falling under the microscope, this time at the Coeur d’Alene Public Library.

Library officials have until next July to establish a content-filtering system for their network. The firewall would block access to “objectionable” content through library-provided internet service and on library-provided computers. The law mandating the filters, introduced to the Idaho State Legislature as H.B.194 in February, was signed into law in April.

“This was legislation that went into effect before libraries were consulted,” Coeur d’Alene Library Director Bette Ammon said Tuesday. “It was passed right before the end of the session. So the library board and I were very frustrated by this.”

The law cites the desire to prevent children who visit public libraries from either directly accessing or inadvertently viewing pornographic material. The law specifically prohibits library administrators from blocking any other material.

“Now we’re hearing that our [mobile] hotspots available for checkout might fall under this, as well,” Ammon said. “That poses new problems.”

Technical hassles aside, one critical problem Ammon said she shared with the library board concerns cost. The law requires libraries to comply but doesn’t provide any funding.

“We still have eight months to put this in place,” Ammon said. “But we’re still figuring out the costs of this and where the money’s coming from. It’s very frustrating.”

From a technical standpoint, filtering content is not the sophisticated challenge it once was. Internet service to wired-in library computers is provided via direct connection through Intermax fiber. Firewall certificates already exist on stand-alone computers, and third-party cloud-computing services can filter out anything an administrator needs to.

The wireless network is another matter.

The city’s network systems administrator, Kirk Johnson, said people bringing their own devices — laptops, smartphones, tablets, etc. — to use on the library’s network present a different set of challenges. While those same third-party companies can filter out unwanted web pages, those filters can be obfuscated.

“We would have to install certificates on [patrons’] computers,” Johnson said. That’s how cryptographic secure sockets layer, also known as SSL, inspections work. “Everything’s moving to SSL on the internet, but we can only filter so much.”

As of right now, any visitor accessing the library’s Wi-Fi needs only accept its privacy policy, which further warns that the network is open — thus potentially exposing sensitive information to other users, including credit-card numbers and passwords.

“It’s really just a warning,” Johnson said. “It’s a warning that you’re on a public network and you’re potentially swimming in dangerous waters.”

The hardest proposition might be internet connection access points, small pucks that emit wireless internet to mobile computing devices. Those pucks receive their internet through cellular services like T-Mobile and Verizon and are designed to provide users internet access away from the library campus. Company-provided firewalls do exist, but they do not possess the same level of security the state might require.

“I don’t know how we could do that, because you’re sending the physical device out,” Johnson said. “And from an IT standpoint, if it leaves the building, users are losing the security we provide. Short of sending out a librarian with each device to look over shoulders, there’s really nothing we can do” to monitor users.

Representatives from the Idaho Library Association and the American Civil Liberties Union did not respond to requests for comment. The ACLU, however, released a statement last spring condemning the bill.

“Courts have repeatedly struck down laws seeking to censor speech that can be accessed online,” the statement read. “The government, the Court said, can no more restrict a person’s access to words or images on the Internet than it could be allowed to snatch a book out of a reader’s hands.”

The ACLU also wrote, “Ultimately, blocking software prevents users from accessing a wide range of valuable information, including such topics as art, literature, women’s health, politics, religion and free speech, which is in direct violation of our First Amendment rights.”

While the bill is law, Ammon contends the public library’s options have not been exhausted. At today’s library board meeting, members will discuss a public lawmaker reception intended to invite representatives to hear library administrators’ concerns. This, as well as lobbying from the Idaho Library Association, represents the first step in what Ammon hopes will drive legislative action.

“We really don’t have a lot of guidance on this,” Ammon said. “They passed this without ever consulting us. We’ve been left in the dark through a lot of this.”