BATON ROUGE, La. — Louisiana State Senator Beth Mizell (R-Franklinton) has introduced a new state law proposing the censorship of “pornography or sexually explicit content” on the personal phones or computers of students, professors and staff while connected to a public university’s wifi network or internet service.
Virtually all of the people who would be affected by Mizell’s bill, pre-filed Wednesday ahead of the upcoming 2022 regular session, are legal adults.
Mizell’s Senate Bill 131 “would require each public university to prohibit access to content that is ‘sexually explicit, pornographic or sexually harassing and, therefore, reasonably believed to create a hostile work environment,’” the Louisiana Illuminator reported yesterday.
Mizell’s anti-free speech bill “would require public postsecondary education boards and institutions to adopt policies that prohibit such content for all students and employees, and it calls for universities to adopt internet censorship techniques that actively block a user from visiting certain websites.”
The report explains that these “techniques” refer to “blockers” or “filters” — many of which are developed and programmed by faith-based startups — that Mizell would have the state pay for with public funds.
Many of these so-called “anti-porn blocks or filters” have been shown to over-block non-explicit content, with a particular bias against any sex education or LGBTQ+ material.
The Louisiana Illuminator points out that one of the largest applications of content filtering worldwide is the national firewall in China, “which blocks free speech, global trade, foreign information sources and other digital content deemed unsuitable.”
Moreover, the conservative lawmaker wants any student or employee “who needs ‘unfiltered or unrestricted access to the internet’ for any scientific, educational or law enforcement reason” to “first obtain written authorization from the institution granting access for a specified time period. Such authorization must be kept on file and reviewed periodically.”
S.B. 131, the report adds, “would leave it to each university to determine what is and is not appropriate and translate that into content blocking parameters.”
Mizell did not respond to the Louisiana Illuminator’s requests for comment.
Main Image: Louisiana State Senator Beth Mizell (R-Franklinton)