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555 Dirksen Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Ph: 202.224.6342
Fax: 202.224.1100
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Raleigh Office:
310 New Bern Avenue
Suite 122
Raleigh, NC 27601
Ph: 919.856.4630
Toll Free: 866.420.6083
Fax: 919.856.4053
Salisbury Office:
225 North Main Street
Suite 304
Salisbury, NC 28144
Ph: 704.633.5011
Toll Free: 866.420.6084
Fax: 704.633.2937
Western Office:
401 North Main Street
Suite 200
Hendersonville, NC 28792
Ph: 828.698.3747
Fax: 828.698.1267
Eastern Office:
306 South Evans Street
Greenville, NC 27835
Ph: 252.329.1093
Fax: 252.329.1097
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Floor Statements
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APPLAUDING THE U.S. SUPREME COURT RULING ON INTERNET FILTERS
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June 26th, 2003 - Mr. President, I applaud this week’s decision by the United States Supreme Court to uphold an important federal law to protect children from pornography.
In a 6-to-3 decision this week, the Court upheld the Children’s Internet Protection Act, which allows the federal government to withhold funds from libraries that don’t use filters to prevent access to pornography. While we must educate our children to be successful in a world full of the promise of advanced technology, we must at the same time protect them from dangers that this technology unfortunately presents.
In today’s world where the Internet and chat rooms have become second nature to second graders, parents need help in protecting their kids, for we have seen the Internet grow rampant with pornography and sexual predators. This is simply unacceptable in our public libraries. More than 14 million people use computers at public libraries each year. Many of them are children, and according to the Department of Commerce, many are from low-income homes.
The Children’s Internet Protection act – which passed Congress in the year 2000, ensures that our children will not be able to pull up pornographic information on the web. Children should be able to go to libraries to read and to learn without the danger of exposure to pornography. And libraries should not use federal tax dollars to put pornography on the shelves, the desktops or the laptops!
This law gives parents and teachers the comfort of knowing that children can surf the web without running into pornographic waters. It protects our children, our taxpayers and our values by preventing pornography from slipping in through an electronic back door.
Some have attempted to paint this as a First Amendment issue . . . but in fact, the Supreme Court rejected such an erroneous argument. Put simply, this law is about protecting our children and the taxpayers. Adults have access to whatever they wish in the privacy of their homes. But it doesn’t make sense for federal tax dollars to be used to provide free pornography for adults or to poison our children! Indeed, Chief Justice William Rehnquist wrote in the decision that the Constitution, “does not guarantee the right to acquire information at a public library without any risk of embarrassment.”
The Supreme Court decision should be commended. It’s a decision for children, a decision for families, and a decision for taxpayers.
Thank you.
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| Elizabeth Dole |
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