H. B. 4802
(By Delegates C. White, Givens, Amores, Wills,
Coleman, Capito and Smirl)
[Originating in the House Committee on the Judiciary]
[March 2, 2000]
A BILL to amend article one, chapter ten of the code of West
Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, by
adding thereto a new section, designated section six-a; and to
amend article four, chapter eighteen of said code by adding
thereto a new section, designated section eleven-a, all
relating to the power and duty of boards of library directors
and county boards of education to establish internet use
policies; defining certain terms; requiring every board of
library directors to file an acceptable use policy with the
state library commission; setting forth minimum provisions for
a use policy; providing for implementation and enforcement of
the policy; providing that the determination of what material
is to be deemed harmful to minors is to be made by the board
of library directors; providing for a biennial report to the
Legislature by the state library commission; defining certain
terms; requiring every county board of education to file an acceptable use policy with the state superintendent of
schools; setting forth minimum provisions for a use policy;
providing for implementation and enforcement of the policy;
providing that the determination of what material is to be
deemed harmful to minors is to be made by the county board of
education; and providing for a biennial report to the
Legislature by the state superintendent of schools.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That article one, chapter ten of the code of West Virginia,
one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be amended by
adding thereto a new section, designated section six-a; and that
article four, chapter eighteen of said code be amended by adding
thereto a new section, designated section eleven-a to read as
follows:
CHAPTER 10. PUBLIC LIBRARIES; PUBLIC RECREATION; ATHLETIC
ESTABLISHMENTS; MONUMENTS AND MEMORIALS; ROSTER OF SERVICEMEN;
EDUCATIONAL BROADCASTING AUTHORITY.
ARTICLE 1. PUBLIC LIBRARIES.
§10-1-6a. Power and duty of library boards and certain governing
bodies regarding acceptable internet use policies.
(a) For the purposes of this section, the words or terms
defined in this subsection have the meanings ascribed to them.
These definitions are applicable unless a different meaning clearly
appears from the context:
(1) "Bulletin Board System" means a computerized meeting and
announcement system that allows persons to carry on discussions,
upload and download files, and make announcements without other
persons being connected to the computer at the same time.
(2) "Harmful to minors" means that quality of any description
or representation, in whatever form, of nudity, sexual conduct,
sexual excitement, or sadomasochistic abuse, when it (A)
predominantly appeals to the prurient, shameful or morbid interest
of minors, (B) is patently offensive to prevailing standards in the
adult community as a whole with respect to what is suitable
material for minors, and (C) is, when taken as a whole, lacking in
serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value for
minors.
(3) "Information infrastructure" means telecommunications,
cable, and computer networks and includes the internet, the
worldwide web, usenet, bulletin board systems, on-line systems, and
telephone networks, and shall also include interactive computer
services.
(4) "Internet" means the international computer network of
both governmental and non-governmental interoperable packet
switched data networks.
(5) "Interactive computer service" means any information
service, system, or access software provider that provides or
enables computer access by multiple users to a computer server, including specifically a service or system that provides access
to the information infrastructure and such systems operated or
services offered by libraries or educational institutions.
(6) "Usenet" means the world-wide system of discussion groups
that allows comments to be passed among hundreds of thousands of
computers. Usenet is completely decentralized, with over 10,000
discussion areas, called newsgroups.
(7) "World Wide Web" (WWW) means the aggregation of hypertext
servers (HTTP servers) that are the servers that allow text,
graphics, sound files, etc. to be mixed together.
(b) On or before the first day of December, two thousand, and
biennially thereafter, (1) every board of library directors
established pursuant to article one, chapter ten of this code or
(2) a governing authority, as defined in section one, article one,
chapter ten of this code, that has not established a board of
library directors, shall file with the state library commission an
acceptable use policy for the information infrastructure.
(c) At a minimum, the policy shall contain provisions which
(1) are designed to prohibit use by library employees and patrons
of the library's computer equipment and communications services for
sending, receiving, viewing, or downloading illegal material via
the information infrastructure, (2) seek to prevent access by
library patrons under the age of eighteen to material which is
harmful to minors, and (3) establish appropriate measures to be taken against persons who violate the policy. The board of library
directors or the governing authority may include such other terms,
conditions, and requirements in the library's policy as it deems
appropriate, such as requiring written parental authorization for
use of the information infrastructure by minors or differentiating
acceptable uses between elementary, middle, and high school
students.
(d) The board of library directors or the governing authority
shall take such steps as it deems appropriate to implement and
enforce the library's policy which may include, but are not limited
to:
(1) The use of software programs designed to block access by:
(A) Library employees and patrons to illegal material; or
(B) Library patrons under the age of eighteen to material
which is harmful to minors; or
(C) Both.
(2) Charging library employees to casually monitor patrons'
internet use; or
(3) Installing privacy screens on computers which access the
internet.
(e) For purposes of this section, the determination of what
material is to be deemed harmful to minors shall be made by the
board of library directors or governing authority responsible for
making the use policy. The state library commission may not establish criteria for making that determination or review the
determination made by the board of library directors.
(f) On or before the first day of December, two thousand,
and biennially thereafter, the state library commission shall
submit a report to the house committee on education and the senate
committee on education which summarizes the acceptable use policies
filed with the state library commission pursuant to this section
and the status thereof.
CHAPTER 18. EDUCATION.
ARTICLE 4. COUNTY SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS.
§18-4-11a. Power and duty of county superintendent regarding
acceptable Internet use policies.
(a) For the purposes of this section, the words or terms
defined in this subsection have the meanings ascribed to them.
These definitions are applicable unless a different meaning clearly
appears from the context:
(1) "Bulletin Board System" means a computerized meeting and
announcement system that allows persons to carry on discussions,
upload and download files, and make announcements without other
persons being connected to the computer at the same time.
(2) "Harmful to minors" means that quality of any description
or representation, in whatever form, of nudity, sexual conduct,
sexual excitement, or sadomasochistic abuse, when it (A)
predominantly appeals to the prurient, shameful or morbid interest of minors, (B) is patently offensive to prevailing standards in the
adult community as a whole with respect to what is suitable
material for minors, and (C) is, when taken as a whole, lacking in
serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value for
minors.
(3) "Information infrastructure" means telecommunications,
cable, and computer networks and includes the internet, the
worldwide web, usenet, bulletin board systems, on-line systems, and
telephone networks, and shall also include interactive computer
services.
(4) "Internet" means the international computer network of
both governmental and non-governmental interoperable packet
switched data networks.
(5) "Interactive computer service" means any information
service, system, or access software provider that provides or
enables computer access by multiple users to a computer server,
including specifically a service or system that provides access
to the information infrastructure and such systems operated or
services offered by libraries or educational institutions.
(6) "Usenet" means the world-wide system of discussion groups
that allows comments to be passed among hundreds of thousands of
computers. Usenet is completely decentralized, with over 10,000
discussion areas, called newsgroups.
(7) "World Wide Web" (WWW) means the aggregation of hypertext servers (HTTP servers) that are the servers that allow text,
graphics, sound files, etc. to be mixed together.
(b) On or before the first day of December, two thousand, and
biennially thereafter, every county board of education shall file
with the state superintendent of schools an acceptable use policy,
approved by the board of education for the information
infrastructure. At a minimum, the policy shall contain provisions
which (1) are designed to prohibit use by school board employees
and students of the board's computer equipment and communications
services for sending, receiving, viewing, or downloading illegal
material via the information infrastructure, (2) seek to prevent
access by students to material which the county board deems to be
harmful to minors, and (3) establish appropriate measures to be
taken against persons who violate the policy. The policy may
include such other terms, conditions, and requirements as are
appropriate, such as requiring written parental authorization for
use of the information infrastructure by minors, or differentiating
acceptable uses among elementary, middle, and high school students.
(c) The county superintendent shall take such steps as he or
she deems appropriate to implement and enforce the county board's
policies, which may include, but are not limited to, the use of
software programs designed to block access by (1) county board
employees and students to illegal material or (2) students to
material which is harmful to minors or (3) both.
(d) For purposes of this section, the determination of what
material is to be deemed harmful to minors shall be made by the
county board responsible for making the use policy. The state
superintendent of schools may not establish criteria for making
that determination or review the determination made by the county
board.
(e) On or before the first day of December, two thousand,
and biennially thereafter, the state superintendent of schools
shall submit a report to the house committee on education and the
senate committee on education which summarizes the acceptable use
policies filed with the state superintendent pursuant to this
section, and the status thereof.
These sections are new; therefore, strike-throughs and
underscoring have been omitted.