The school censors in Florida strike again

The St. Peterburg Times carries a report that a school security officer
is under investigation by the New Port Richey police department and the
Florida Attorney General's cybercrimes unit because one of his MySpace
friends has links to nude photographs from his (the friend’s web
site), and those sites with those photographs, apparently, link to porn
sites.  The theory is that the security officer could be criminally
liable for intentionally making pornographic material available to
children.  Or, perhaps it doesn’t matter whether the officer had bad
intent - the Times also carries the follow peculiar quote from the
Florida Attorney General’s office: “I am sure the attorney general
would be extremely concerned if a member of the trusted law enforcement
community was either inadvertently or directly placing students at risk
to being exposed to inappropriate content.”

According to the story, the security officer was specifically
encouraged by school authorities as well as by the local police
department to create a MySpace page in order to reach out to the local
students “where they are.”  But because he had to approve of any new
“friends,” he is subject to a criminal investigation into his
“purpose” or state of mind when approving these friends.

The newspaper carries this story without any consideration of the First
Amendment implications of opening a criminal investigation into someone
for the “crime” of linking to somebody else who in turn links to
nude photographs and thence into the world of porn.


http://www.sptimes.com/2008/01/24/Pasco/Links_leave_cop_red_f.shtml

http://blogs.tampabay.com/schools/2008/01/school-officers.html


Paul Alan Levy
Public Citizen Litigation Group
1600 - 20th Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20009
(202) 588-1000
http://www.citizen.org/litigation