WASHINGTON  Congress is considering a bill that would bar children who use computers in public libraries from accessing Facebook and other social networking websites without parental permission.

Rep. Mark Steven Kirk, the Illinois Republican who sponsored the measure, says the proposal would keep sexual predators from contacting minors who are using a library computer.

But the American Library Association says Kirk's bill is yet another attempt by the federal government to interfere with library users' privacy and free speech.

"If people in a community do not feel confident that their privacy will be protected, they cannot use the library as it was intended, for intellectual pursuit," said Emily Sheketoff, who heads the association's Washington office. "It will intimidate them."

It's the latest in a series of battles the association has been fighting with Congress over the past decade. Some highlights:

•In 2000, lawmakers required libraries receiving federally discounted Internet service to install devices to filter out obscene material. Libraries sued, but the Supreme Court upheld the law.

•A year later, following the 2001 terrorist attacks, Congress passed the USA Patriot Act, giving federal authorities more power to track the books and videos library patrons borrow and the websites they visit.

Despite objections from the American Library Association, the act was renewed in 2006 without significant changes, other than a requirement that authorities take extra steps in justifying their need for the records.

Supporters of the law note that two of the 2001 hijackers bought their plane tickets using a public computer at a New Jersey college library and that other members of the plot surfed the Internet using a computer at a public library in Delray Beach, Fla.

Earlier this year, a federal magistrate judge in Atlanta ruled the FBI did not violate the privacy of a Pakistani national in 2006 by logging onto the same computer the Pakistani has used and looking up which websites he had visited. Agents said the man was part of a terrorism plot.

•In 2007, the American Library Association helped persuade Congress to reopen several Environmental Protection Agency libraries the Bush administration had closed. The closures "created a serious obstacle to the public's ability to gather information about key environmental issues," according to the association.

•Kirk's bill, the Deleting Online Predators Act, died in 2006 but gained new life this year.

Kirk says that as more children flock to social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook, "we've seen a corresponding increase of online sexual predators" targeting those children.

But library officials say the legislation — while tackling a legitimate problem — takes the wrong approach in trying to keep kids safe from online predators.

Rather than outlawing certain sites, the American Library Association supports preparing kids and parents to deal with online threats at the library, home or anywhere else.