OKLAHOMA CITY (May 20th) – A bill protecting K-12 school-aged children from access to pornographic or obscene material in schools or libraries or through online digital libraries was signed into law by the governor this week.
OKLAHOMA CITY – Rep. Todd Russ, R-Cordell, has filed legislation that seeks to protect school-aged children from inappropriate material in school and public libraries.
House Bill 3702 would require any Oklahoma school district, charter or virtual charter school, state agency, public library, or university that offers digital or online library database resources to students in kindergarten through twelfth grade to do so only if the vendor, person, or entity providing the resources verifies that all the resources comply with the provisions of the new law.
"The protection of our children is of the utmost importance," Russ said. "Unfortunately, even though we have current state laws that define inappropriate material, we are still finding examples of this in our public school classrooms and libraries throughout the state on a regular basis. We must do a better job of safeguarding young minds from obscene material."
Under the proposed new law, public schools, agencies, libraries and universities would be required to have safety policies and technology protections in place for K-12 students.
A user would be prohibited and prevented from sending, receiving, viewing, or downloading materials that are child pornography or obscene materials, as defined in current state statutes, or materials that depict child sexual exploitation as defined in current state statute. Filters or blocks to such materials are easily available and would be required.
