Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA) and Filtering

The Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA) is a law that requires schools and libraries receiving federal money through the E-rate program (in Maine, most schools and libraries that are members of MSLN receive money through E-rate for their Internet connection) to do three things:

1) Write an Internet safety policy that discusses several key issues of Internet safety, especially for minors;

2) Hold a public meeting to review and ratify the policy;

3) Implement a content filter on all school or library computers and devices able to connect to the Internet. Libraries must also disable this filter at the request of an adult.

The links below are resources to assist libraries in understanding CIPA and its requirements and achieving CIPA compliance.

Users of the Networkmaine-provided content filter, OpenDNS, are encouraged to seek guidance on the filter and its interface from Networkmaine. Please click here to visit the MSLN OpenDNS Support Center.

Additional resources for CIPA compliance, policies and filtering are located here.

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