What Is Our WiFi Responsibility?

PBS' learning.now host and blogger recently posted this article about a new bill in Utah that would make WiFi network owners responsible for (as in "civil damages" responsible) for unsavory content that minors access through their network. Things seem to be proceeding relatively reasonably and civilly based on Carvin's post, but it's still an unnerving thought, and Carvin gets to the heart of what educators find so frustrating about filtering and limitations on websurfing:

As any teacher working behind an Internet filter knows, they’re far from perfect. Valuable online resources get blocked while inappropriate content slips through. Just this week I heard from someone who couldn’t access NPR’s Super Tuesday coverage because their school’s filter blocked the site - presumably because the site features blogs.

At the same time, SciFi author and respected Futurist Bruce Schneier recently posted this article about the politeness of maintaining an open WiFi network. I've definitely been the beneficiary of an open network or two in my day, and I want to believe that his reasonings are sound. The looming possibilities of wrong-headed legislation like this bill in Utah make it a lot harder to feel comfortable opening up my network though. Nevertheless, I think that the notion of opening up one's network is a noble one, especially if there's a possibility that you could be providing youths who don't have their own access with some of the freedom of information and interaction that their more fortunate peers have.