SCOUTING YESTERDAY | Federal response comes as S.D. libraries grapple with age appropriate content

This week in South Dakota history: Dec. 13-19

Photo: Wikicommons

The Sioux Falls public library was weighing parental concern and First Amendment guarantees in regulating access to online pornography 25 years ago.

A South Dakota law passed in early 1999 required public libraries to limit minors’ internet access. But according to the Dec. 13, 1999, edition of the Argus Leader, library officials said a policy to filter online content in children’s sections of libraries that had already been in place complied with the new law.

At the time, South Dakota and Arizona had been the only states where legislatures adopted online porn laws, forcing libraries to work with laws restricting content for minors. But within a year, the federal government would implement the Children’s Internet Protection Act that included the threat of withholding federal funds from schools and libraries that failed to keep harmful, obscene and pornographic online content from children.

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