Why Starbucks and McDonald's agreed to block Wi-Fi pornography

The restaurants plan to implement filtering technology to block porn websites, as Chick-fil-A and Panera Bread have already done.

|
Charles Krupa/AP/File
Starbucks patrons use laptop computers at a shop in Cambridge, Mass., in 2012. Starbucks and McDonalds told The Associated Press Monday that they're in the process of implementing technology to filter pornography from Wi-Fi connections at their stores.

Patrons of McDonald's and Starbucks can no longer watch pornography on the chains' public Wi-Fi, as both are implementing filtering technology to block sexually explicit content.

The move is the result of a campaign from anti-pornography groups Enough is Enough (EIE) and the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE). EIE launched the "National Porn Free Wi-Fi" campaign in the fall of 2014, with nearly 50,000 petitions and 75 partner organizations urging McDonald's and Starbucks to block pornography from their public Wi-Fi.

EIE President Donna Rice Hughes called the recent announcement a "huge victory." 

"Parents can have peace of mind that, when they or their children go to McDonald's, they will have a safer and more friendly Wi-Fi experience, filtered from pornography, from child porn and from potential sexual exploitation and predation," she said in a statement on Wednesday, following the announcement from McDonald's. 

The agreement comes amid a national debate on the dangers of pornography, as the Republican Party is reportedly moving to declare internet pornography a "public health crisis" under an amendment that was added to its 2016 platform draft at preliminary meetings last week. 

"Thanks in part to the internet, it is now beyond an individual's or a family's capacity to adequately protect against, or overcome the harmful influences of, pornography," said Dawn Hawkins, executive director of NCOSE, to CNN at the time. She added that research has shown pornography use is linked to decreased gray matter in the brain, having more sexual partners, and perpetuating rape myths

"This reality requires a public health approach to raise awareness about the harms of pornography, provide resources to those struggling with it and to offer effective prevention strategies," she said. 

While there are no statistics on how often the public Wi-Fi at McDonald's and Starbucks has been used to view pornography, Ms. Hughes told CNN Money that there have been news reports about public Wi-Fi hotspots increasingly being used to traffic child pornography and the sexual solicitation of children. 

"These criminal felonies are difficult to deter because of the anonymity offered by open Wi-Fi," she said. 

So far, Wi-Fi filtering has already been activated in the majority of the nearly 14,000 McDonald's restaurants nationwide, the Associated Press reports. A spokesperson from Starbucks said its shops plan to implement filtering as soon as it can figure out a system that "also doesn't involuntarily block unintended content."

The two companies join several smaller national restaurant chains that already filter out pornography, such as Chick-fil-A and Panera Bread, according to NCOSE. EIE and NCOSE say they hope that, with the influence of McDonald's and Starbucks, more establishments will follow. 

"We commend both Starbucks and McDonalds for leading the way for corporate America to provide safer Wi-Fi," Hughes said. "We will vigorously continue to encourage other businesses and venues such as hotels, airlines, shopping malls, and libraries to filter pornography and child abuse images on publically available Wi-Fi in order to protect children and families."

For its part, The American Library Association has long opposed efforts to implement filters in public libraries. In a statement on their website, the group cites studies that show that filters frequently block constitutionally protected speech while failing to block illegal child pornography. "We're concerned that filters give parents a false sense of security that their children are protected when they aren't," read the statement. "Education is more effective than filters."

This report contains material from the Associated Press. 

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Why Starbucks and McDonald's agreed to block Wi-Fi pornography
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Technology/2016/0718/Why-Starbucks-and-McDonald-s-agreed-to-block-Wi-Fi-pornography
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe