Committee hears hours of testimony on bill to remove library exemption in Georgia obscenity law

At a Judiciary committee hearing, lawmakers considered Senate Bill 74, which would remove an exception in Georgia's obscenity statute that currently exempts public libraries from certain provisions of OCGA 16-12-103.

Supporters, led on the floor by Senator Burns, said the bill "does not change the current Georgia obscenity law" and "does not ban any book or any library material," but instead would require libraries to follow the same statute as other Georgians and to take reasonable steps to restrict minors' access to material the code defines as harmful. "This is not punitive," Burns said; "it's designed to protect children."

Proponents told the committee that the statute at issue dates back to the late 1960s and that the library exception was inserted in 1984; Burns said the proposal would align Georgia with a majority of other states and would add an affirmative defense for library workers who make "a good faith attempt to identify and remove from access to minors all physical or electronically…