Illinois House Republicans have begun pushing a plan for Internet safety through legislation House Bill 37 through House Bill 41.


Mike Riopell, Lee News Service/Bloomington Pantagraph

SPRINGFIELD - Their cause bolstered by high-profile reports of Internet sex predators and parental wariness of the dangers hiding online, Illinois House Republicans have begun pushing a plan that they hope will quell some of those fears.

House Minority Leader Tom Cross is proposing, among other things, to let school districts discipline students who post threats on social networking sites like MySpace.com and Facebook.com even if they do it from home and on their own time.

But that has some worried that overzealous school boards will expel children for criticism of teachers and administrators that's protected by the First Amendment.

While poking fun at principals has happened during lunch periods for generations, the technology to make those harsh jabs internationally available is fairly new.

"It is not a threat to simply mock or make fun of the principal," said Ed Yohnka, a spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois. "I suspect we all said some things. We just didn't have a MySpace account."

Cross says, though, that his proposal is specific, so the threat would have to be clear.

"I'm pretty sensitive about it," said Cross, of Oswego.

Republican state Rep. Roger Eddy, who also is superintendent of Hutsonville Community Unit School District 1, says districts already have the power to punish children who somehow use their own time to disrupt school.

"They're generally kind of surprised to hear that," he said.

Still, Eddy supports new legislation because more specific language may help school boards if punishments are challenged in court.

"I think it just clarifies some questions that students have, too," he said.

Other provisions of Cross' Internet safety package would force distributors of child pornography to register with the state as sex offenders. Another would make it easier for law enforcement to secretly monitor to Internet transmissions of illegal pornography.

Decatur Police Chief James Anderson says that while they can often get court warrants to eavesdrop now, rules that'd make it easier could help.

"It's a tremendous help to actually have the other person making incriminating statements," he said.

Lawmakers could start debating the plans when the General Assembly returns to work in early February. Until then, Anderson says they'll be monitoring the Internet, even if it's a little harder.

"We just jump through the hoops," he said.