Children's Internet Protection Act

Children's Internet Protection Act
(Updated June 23, 2003 due to Supreme Court Ruling.)

The FY01 federal appropriations bill for Labor, Health and Education programs includes provisions mandating that schools adopt both an Internet Safety Policy and a "technology protection measure" for computers with Internet access. NERIC is still in the process of researching the details of this new mandate and analyzing how it will affect the schools in our service area. While some of the timelines and implementation details are not yet clear, we are offering the following initial summary of this new mandate under the assumption that the Act will survive all court challenges.

The mandate:
The "Children's Internet Protection Act" (referred to as both CIPA and CHIP Act) requires that schools receiving funding from either of these two sources must enforce Internet safety policies with technology protection measures:

Discounted rates for services under the E-Rate program, or

Funding through Title III of the Elementary & Secondary Education Act, or the Library Services & Technology Act -- when those funds are used to purchase computers that access the Internet, or to pay for direct costs associated with accessing the Internet.

Failure to adopt a policy and implement a technology protection measure could cause a school to lose these federal funds. Districts are free to choose any filtering or blocking technology, however, the act does specify whose access must be filtered and which types of materials must be blocked by schools receiving E-Rate discounts or Title III funds. The Act applies to direct as well as indirect recipients of federal funds under the programs specified.

Timeline for implementation:
Not all timeline requirements are clear at this time. Here are the details as we understand them:

December 15, 2000
Congressional consideration of H.R. 4577, the Consolidated Appropriations Act for 2001 (Conference Report 106-1033, reprinted in 146 Cong. Rec. No. 155). Title XVII of the bill is entitled "Children's Internet Protection."

December 21, 2000
(Date of enactment) - President signs bill into law (Public Law No. 106-554).

April 20, 2001
The date by which the FCC's must issue regulations (updates to paragraphs (5) and (6) of section 254 (h) of the Communications Act of 1934). This was released on April 5, 2001.

October 28, 2001
The date by which each district is required to have a local Internet safety policy (excluding the selection of a technology protection measure) and, "as part of the application process", must certify that they are either working on compliance or are already in compliance with CIPA.

July 1, 2002
The date by which each district is required to have a technology protection measure in place.

FCC Rules - Key Points
(a) CIPA requirements apply only to applicants seeking E-rate discounts on Internet access and internal connection services. Discounts solely on telecommunications services are not affected.

(b) Form 486 will be revised to include the appropriate certifications. Applicants must be prepared to certify compliance as soon as E-rate services are received for the PY4 funding year beginning July 1, 2001. The actual Form 486 certification must be made no later than October 28, 2001.

(c) Form 486 will also be used to certify compliance for PY5. This is a change from an earlier proposal that would have required PY5 certification on the Form 471 that would have had to be submitted next winter during the PY5 application window.

(d) A new Form 479 is being designed for E-rate consortiums. Consortium leaders will be required to certify that they have collected Form 479s from all their members indicating that they are in compliance. We are hoping that the new Form 479 process will also serve as a proxy for the letters of agency now being requested in some consortium application reviews.

(e) The FCC declined to adopt any rules that would require applicants to certify the effectiveness of their filtering, track attempts to access prohibited material, further define prohibited material or actions, or establish specific provisions to disable protection measures for lawful research. Nor do the FCC rules require applicants to post actual CIPA requirements, text of their Internet safety policies, identification their technology protection vendors, or instructions on registering complaints.

"Taking Actions"
Paragraph 15 of the of the FCC Rules states that "Thus, any school or library that receives discounted services between July1 and October 28, 2001, must be taking actions to comply with CIPA at the time that it actually receives these services, even though the certification is not due until October 28, 2001." What does the FCC mean by "taking actions"?

According to E-Rate Central:

"If Internet service is already being filtered, this should be a sufficient start. If not, some affirmative action should be taken and documented before July 1. This might be as simple as attending a workshop on CIPA compliance or initiating a memo to the school principal or superintendent noting the need for Internet safety policies and a filtering mechanism over the next year. "

Additional information can be found at the USAC Schools and Library Program web site.

Who will pay for this?
Costs of filtering will not be eligible for E-rate discounts. Funds available under Sec. 3134, Part A of Title VI of ESEA, or Sec. 231 of LSTA may be used for the acquisition of the required "technology protection measures."

NERIC Internet Service
As direct recipients of federal funds under the programs specified in the Act, NERIC and the Capital Region BOCES must comply with the requirements of the Act and will:

Draft its own local Internet Safety Policy covering both Capital Region BOCES students and Capital Region BOCES employees

Place into service a "technology protection measure" that complies with this policy

As a result of this compliance, we will make our Internet Safety Policy and our Board Resolution available to any district in our service area. As per the direction of the Capital Region BOCES Board, NERIC will not be offering a filtering service. NERIC will, however, share the results of its investigation into currently available products with districts in this region. In addition, NERIC will be available to assist in the implementation of "technology protection measures" for those districts that receive their Internet access from NERIC.

CIPA Litigation
On May 31, 2002 the three-judge panel sitting in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania held that “we are constrained to conclude that the library plaintiffs must prevail in their contention that CIPA requires them to violate the First Amendment rights of their patrons, and accordingly is facially invalid”; the three-judge panel ruled Sections 1712(a)(2) and 1721(b) of the Children's Internet Protection Act to be facially invalid under the First Amendment and permanently enjoined the government from enforcing those provisions. This decision applies solely to public libraries and does not remove or reduce CIPA’s requirements for schools.

FCC Ruling
On June 28, 2002, in response to the court ruling in ALA vs. U.S., the FCC has issued a ruling suspending enforcement of the requirement that public libraries purchase filtering software, pending review by the U.S. Supreme Court. The other portions of CIPA remain in effect for libraries, and all portions of CIPA remain in effect for schools.

Supreme Court Ruling
On June 23, 2003, the Supreme Court of the United States in ALA vs. U.S. issued a ruling reversing the District Court's finding. The Supreme Court in a 6-3 decision has held that public libraries must purchase filtering software and comply with all portions of CIPA.

Further information:
Text of ALA and Multnomah County Public Library v. U.S. Decision:
http://www.paed.uscourts.gov/documents/opinions/02D0415P.HTM

NERIC Updates:
http://cipa.neric.org

Filtering Products
http://e-ratecentral.com/help/filtering_prods.htm

Full text of the Act
http://www.ala.org/cipa/Law.PDF

Full text of the FCC's Rules
http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Common_Carrier/Orders/2001/fcc01120.doc

E-Rate Central
http://e-ratecentral.com

USAC Schools and Libraries Program
http://www.sl.universalservice.org/

eScholNews - "What you need to know right now"
http://www.eschoolnews.org/showstory.cfm?ArticleID=2677

US Senator John McCain Press Release, December 15, 2000
http://www.senate.gov/~mccain/intfinal.htm

CDT POLICY POST, Volume 6, Number 22, December 18,2000, The Center for Democracy and Technology
http://www.cdt.org/publications/pp_6.22.shtml

N2H2, Inc., "How Does Internet Filtering Legislation Affect You?"
http://www.filteringinfo.org/

Schools & Libraries Division Description of CHIP Act E-Rate Provisions
http://www.sl.universalservice.org/whatsnew/CIPA020101.asp

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Universal Service Home Page
http://www.fcc.gov/ccb/universal_service/

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) "Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking" on the CHIP Act
http://www.fcc.gov/ccb/universal_service/chipnprm.doc

Consumer Reports Online, "Filtering Software for Kids," March 2001
http://www.consumerreports.org/Special/ConsumerInterest/Reports/0103fil0.html

eSchoolNews Online, "Free-speech groups fight federal filtering mandate," February 2001
http://www.eschoolnews.com/showstory.cfm?ArticleID=2217

Questions? Send e-mail to: igoldste@gw.neric.org

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