Arkansas House Narrowly Passes Bill to Protect Children from Obscenity at Libraries

Legislation, Library, , ,

On Wednesday the Arkansas House of Representatives narrowly passed a bill addressing obscenity and other harmful material in public libraries.

S.B. 81 by Sen. Dan Sullivan (R – Russellville) and Rep. Justin Gonzales (R – Okolona) prohibits giving or sending harmful sexual material to a child.

The bill eliminates exemptions for libraries and schools in the state’s obscenity statute, and it clarifies how library patrons can work to remove objectionable material from a library’s catalog.

On Wednesday, the measure received 56 votes in the Arkansas House of Representatives; it takes 51 votes to pass a bill.

Family Council has heard repeatedly from people who are deeply troubled by obscene children’s books that some librarians have placed on the shelves of their local libraries.

For example, the Jonesboro public library has been at the center of multiple controversies over its decision to place books with sexually-explicit images in its children’s section and for failing to adopt a policy that separates sexual material from children’s content.

The library in Jonesboro went so far as to post on Facebook that it isn’t the library’s responsibility to protect kids from obscenity.

Other public libraries in Arkansas have failed to separate sexual material from children’s material as well.

Some of the people who have testified publicly against S.B. 81 this year have signaled that they want to be free to share obscene material with children at a library.

S.B. 81 is a good bill that will help prevent that.

The Following Representatives Voted For S.B. 81

  • Barker
  • Beaty Jr.
  • Beck
  • Bentley
  • Breaux
  • Brooks
  • K. Brown
  • M. Brown
  • Burkes
  • John Carr
  • Cavenaugh
  • C. Cooper
  • Crawford
  • Dalby
  • Duffield
  • Duke
  • Eaves
  • C. Fite
  • L. Fite
  • Furman
  • Gazaway
  • Gonzales
  • Gramlich
  • Haak
  • Hawk
  • D. Hodges
  • G. Hodges
  • Jean
  • L. Johnson
  • Long
  • Lundstrum
  • Maddox
  • McAlindon
  • McCollum
  • McGrew
  • B. McKenzie
  • McNair
  • S. Meeks
  • Milligan
  • Painter
  • Pearce
  • Pilkington
  • Puryear
  • Ray
  • Richmond
  • Rose
  • Rye
  • Schulz
  • R. Scott Richardson
  • Steimel
  • Tosh
  • Underwood
  • Unger
  • Wing
  • Womack
  • Wooldridge

The Following Representatives Voted Against S.B. 81

  • F. Allen
  • S. Berry
  • Clowney
  • A. Collins
  • Ennett
  • D. Ferguson
  • K. Ferguson
  • V. Flowers
  • D. Garner
  • Hudson
  • Lynch
  • Magie
  • McCullough
  • M. McElroy
  • Nicks
  • Perry
  • J. Richardson
  • Scott
  • T. Shephard
  • Springer
  • Vaught
  • Walker
  • Warren
  • D. Whitaker
  • Wooten

The Following Representatives Voted “Present” on S.B. 81

  • Joey Carr
  • Cozart
  • Evans
  • Hollowell
  • J. Mayberry
  • McClure
  • K. Moore
  • Watson

The Following Representatives Did Not Vote

  • Achor
  • Andrews
  • M. Berry
  • Eubanks
  • Fortner
  • Holcomb
  • Ladyman
  • Miller
  • J. Moore
  • Wardlaw
  • Speaker Shepherd

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Bad Home School Testing Bill Filed

Home School, Legislation,

A bad home school testing bill has been filed at the Arkansas Legislature.

H.B. 1587 by Rep. Jim Wooten (R – Beebe) requires home schoolers to take a nationally recognized norm-referenced test every year in order to receive an form of public funds.

The way this bill is written, home schoolers in Arkansas would have to test if they receive any type of public assistance or any type of grant or scholarship paid for with state or federal funds.

The testing requirements in H.B. 1587 do not seem to be connected to the LEARNS Act that Gov. Sanders recently signed into law.

The LEARNS Act creates a voluntary school choice program in Arkansas, and it requires private school and home school students to take a norm-referenced test each year in order to participate in that voluntary school choice program.

Most home schoolers would not be eligible to apply to be part of the LEARNS Act’s school choice program until 2025.

H.B. 1587 would take effect this summer, and it would require home school families to take a state-mandated test in order to receive any type of public funds.

It seems highly unlikely that H.B. 1587 will pass at the Arkansas Legislature — especially with less than a month left in the 2023 session.

However, it is worth pointing out that the State of Arkansas used to require home schoolers to take a state-mandated test.

In 2009, Arkansas’ home schoolers performed better on the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills than 61% – 80% of the students who took that test, nationwide.

According to the 2013-2014 Home School Report from the Arkansas Department of Education, in 2014 home schoolers in grades 3 – 9 scored anywhere from the 51st percentile to the 65th percentile on that same test.

In fact, home schoolers in Arkansas performed so well on standardized tests that the Arkansas Legislature finally ended state-mandated home school testing in 2015.

There is simply no reason to bring home school testing back.

You Can Read H.B. 1587 Here.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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Good Bill Would Require Age Verification, Parental Consent for Social Media Sites

Legislation,

A good bill filed at the Arkansas Legislature last week would help protect minors in Arkansas from accessing social media sites without parental consent.

S.B. 396, the Social Media Safety Act, by Sen. Tyler Dees (R – Siloam Springs) and Rep. Jon Eubanks (R – Paris) requires social media companies to verify users’ ages and not to grant minors access to the social media platform without parental consent.

The bill contains protections for user privacy. A social media company that violated the law could be held liable.

More and more, social media platforms simply are not a place for children — at least, not without parental supervision.

Just last month social psychologist Jonathan Haidt published an analysis that delved into a decade’s worth of data and research on mental health.

His conclusion? Social media is a major cause of mental illness in girls.

As he wrote, “The hours girls spent each day on Instagram were taken from sleep, exercise, and time with friends and family. What did we think would happen to them?”

On the TikTok platform — which is very popular with youth — The New York Times reports that teen users developed tics similar to Tourette’s syndrome during COVID lockdowns.

Researchers are still analyzing the reasons why, but the consensus seems to be that this was a social contagion that spread online at a time when some teens were using social media more than ever.

Besides hurting mental health, there is other harmful content on social media.

In December, news outlets reported how TikTok’s algorithm was suggesting videos that promoted self-harm and eating disorders to teenagers.

Occult videos on TikTok — labeled “WitchTok” — have garnered an astounding 18.7 billion views.

A recent CDC report found 16% of high school students were electronically bullied in 2021 through texting, Instagram, Facebook, or other social media platform.

The list goes on.

Legislation like S.B. 396 would help parents and social media companies protect children from harmful content online.

You Can Read S.B. 396 Here.

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