Starbucks just announced that they are going to block porn sites starting next year as a response to the years of pressure from an anti-pornography organization, Enough is Enough. Back in 2016, an announcement was given through CNN that internet filters will be implemented to promote a safe environment. Unfortunately, such “filters” weren’t able to achieve the expected goal which dismayed Donna Rice Hughes, the org’s CEO. In a statement that she released earlier this week, “doors are wide open for convicted sex offenders… to fly under the radar from law enforcement and use free public Wi-Fi to access illegal child pornography.”
The coffee chain was able to find a definite solution to officially eliminate this issue which will be introduced throughout its US stores in 2019. “To ensure the Third Place remains safe and welcoming to all, we have identified a solution to prevent this content from being viewed within our stores,” a representative told Business Insider.
Further technicalities weren’t disclosed, but this announcement was a response from a petition that was also led by Enough is Enough which garnered a total of 26,000 signatures.
There wasn’t any data given on the actual number of porn site views over their public wifi, however watching pornography within the store premise has always been banned and will never be tolerated which was also emphasized in a statement the company gave with The Verge.
Confirmations on whether these filters will be implemented overseas were never mentioned in any of the interviews. Hopefully, Starbucks will be able to address this with other countries, such as the ones in South East Asia, since it is already considered an epidemic within that region.