File #: Int 0553-1999    Version: * Name: Pornographic Website Access
Type: Introduction Status: Filed
Committee: Committee on Youth Services
On agenda: 5/11/1999
Enactment date: Law number:
Title: A Local Law to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to requiring that the board of education, the New York Public Library, the Brooklyn Public Library and the Queens Public Library each establish a pilot program regarding youth access to pornographic web sites on the internet when using terminals located in schools and libraries.
Sponsors: James S. Oddo, Thomas V. Ognibene, Stephen J. Fiala, Martin J. Golden, Alphonse Stabile, Michael J. Abel, Noach Dear, Michael C. Nelson, Angel Rodriguez, Una Clarke, Julia Harrison, Adolfo Carrion, Morton Povman, Lucy Cruz, Lawrence A. Warden, Guillermo Linares, Archie W. Spigner, Martin Malave-Dilan, Sheldon S. Leffler, Pedro G. Espada
Council Member Sponsors: 20
Date Ver.Prime SponsorAction ByActionResultAction DetailsMeeting DetailsMultimedia
12/31/2001*James S. Oddo City Council Filed (End of Session)  Action details Meeting details Not available
1/27/2000*James S. Oddo Committee on Youth Services Hearing Held by Committee  Action details Meeting details Not available
1/27/2000*James S. Oddo Committee on Youth Services Laid Over by Committee  Action details Meeting details Not available
5/11/1999*James S. Oddo Legislative Documents Unit Printed Item Laid on Desk  Action details Meeting details Not available
5/11/1999*James S. Oddo City Council Referred to Comm by Council  Action details Meeting details Not available
5/11/1999*James S. Oddo City Council Introduced by Council  Action details Meeting details Not available

Int. No. 553

 

By Council Members Oddo, Ognibene, Fiala, Golden, Stabile, Abel, Dear, Nelson, Rodriguez, Clarke, Harrison, Carrion, Povman, Cruz, Warden, Linares, Spigner and Malave-Dilan; also Council Members Leffler and Espada.

 

A Local Law to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to requiring that the board of education, the New York Public Library, the Brooklyn Public Library and the Queens Public Library each establish a pilot program regarding youth access to pornographic web sites on the internet when using terminals located in schools and libraries.

 

Be it enacted by the Council as follows:

 

                     Section 1.  Chapter 1 of title 10 of the administrative code of the city of New York is amended by adding a new section 10-161 to read as follows:

                     § 10-161 Monitoring Youth Access to the Internet.  a. Definitions.  As used in this section, the following terms shall mean and include:

(1) “Pornographic web sites.”   Web sites accessible on the Internet which are characterized by an emphasis upon the depiction or description of “specified sexual activities” or “specified anatomical areas.”

(2) “Specified sexual activities.”  (i) Human genitals in a state of sexual stimulation or arousal; (ii) actual or simulated acts of human masturbation, sexual intercourse or sodomy; or (iii) fondling or other erotic touching of human genitals, pubic region, buttocks, anus or female breast.

(3) “Specified anatomical areas.”  (i) Less than completely and opaquely concealed (a) human genitals, pubic region, (b) human buttocks, anus, or (c) female breast below a point immediately above the top of the areola; or (ii) human male genitals in a discernibly turgid state, even if completely and opaquely concealed.

(4)  “Youth.”  Any person under eighteen years of age.

b.   The board of education, the New York Public Library, the Brooklyn Public Library and the Queens Public Library shall each institute a pilot program, in which the board and each library system shall delineate its plans to address the issue of youth access to pornographic web sites on the Internet when using computer terminals located at public schools and libraries, respectively, and shall be required to consider and install filtering software on an experimental and limited basis as one method of preventing such access.

1.  The board of education, the New York Public Library, the Brooklyn Public Library and the Queens Public Library shall each submit to the speaker of the council reports on September 30th and December 31st of nineteen hundred ninety-nine.

2.   The September 30th report shall include, but not be limited to, the following:  a comprehensive plan for preventing youth access to pornographic web sites on the Internet; what technology the board of education and each library system, respectively, has examined to prevent youth access to pornographic web sites, including, but not limited to, filtering software, the names of the companies it has analyzed that manufacture such products and the reasons why the products were found to be sufficient or deficient, and what other measures the board of education and each library system has taken to that date to deal with the problem of youths accessing pornographic web sites.

3.  The December 31st report shall include, but not be limited to, the following:  the progress of the pilot program; the areas in which the program succeeded; the  areas in which the program has failed or been less successful; the reasons for the success or failure; and plans to improve the program.

 

§ 2.  This local law shall take effect immediately.

 

HG:ts

4/29/99

LS#565