Coffee chain Starbucks to ban pornography on its free wi-fi

Washington: American coffee giant, Starbucks has announced that it will restrict access to pornography on its free Wi-Fi in all the US outlets from next year i.e. 2019.

However, watching explicit content in store was always banned, Starbucks will now actively block such content, according to a report.

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The company has been under pressure from a Virginia-based non-profit organization, 'Enough is Enough', to monitor and ban pornographic content watched in its stores.

It is to be mentioned that the fast food chain McDonald's had to change its Wi-Fi policies in 2016 after receiving pressure from the group.

"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," Starbucks said in a statement.

Starbucks has also said that it has "identified a solution" to stop access to pornographic content in its all US based stores by 2019, but did not talk about the solution.

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'Enough is Enough' issued a statement earlier this week criticizing the company for not blocking such contents as promised by Starbucks in 2016.

"Starbucks continues to serve up free, unrestricted Wi-Fi to its customers, opening the door for patrons to view graphic or obscene pornography, view or distribute child pornography (an illegal crime) or engage in sexual predation activity," the statement read.

The organisation also encouraged people to sign a petition demanding Starbucks to take some serious steps in this regard and introduce a filter to stop people browsing through pornography via store's free wi-fi.

Interestingly, so far more than 27,000 people have signed it by Thursday.

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