For years, Starbucks came under fire for not preventing its customers from watching pornography on its in-store Wi-Fi. But finally, after years of pressure, Starbucks will be rolling out a new tool meant to introduce a filter that prevents customers from watching pornography and viewing other explicit content in stores in 2019.
In an interview “ The Verge,” Starbucks said, “While it rarely occurs, the use of Starbucks public Wi-Fi to view illegal or egregious content is not, nor has it ever been permitted…We have identified a solution to prevent this content from being viewed within our stores and we will begin introducing it to our US locations in 2019.”
Starbucks has not released any details on the solution, but said the company tested multiple tools, hoping to avoid accidentally blocking inoffensive sites.
Starbucks wasn’t the only fast food chain to come under the same pressure. Back in 2016, McDonald’s began to block porn on its public Wi-Fi networks.
This is because an Internet safety organization called Enough Is Enough has been pressuring Starbucks and other franchises with in-store Internet access to implement content filters for years. After McDonald’s blocked inappropriate websites, Starbucks was pressured to do the same. However, at the time, Starbucks said it would implement filters if it found a content blocker that wouldn’t block unintended sites as well.
This week, Enough Is Enough CEO Donna Rice Hughes said Starbucks failed to protect its customers and follow through with its plan to block explicit content.
“By breaking its commitment, Starbucks is keeping the doors wide open for convicted sex offenders and others to fly under the radar from law enforcement and use free, public Wi-Fi services to access illegal child porn and hard-core pornography,” Hughes said.
By: Maytinee Kramer
