SEATTLE — Starbucks has announced it will block access to porn websites via the company’s Wi-Fi network.
In January, Starbucks will introduce a content blocker that bans access to pornographic sites while using its free in-store Wi-Fi. Viewing porn at Starbucks has long been banned, but there was no mechanism in place to prevent customers from doing so.
Business Insider reports the company has instituted the filter after pressure from an outside group that advocated for a porn ban for years. Enough is Enough, a nonprofit dedicated to internet safety for children, launched a petition encouraging Starbucks to ban porn. It received more than 26,000 signatures.
The group wrote in its petition: “Starbucks is keeping the doors wide open for convicted sex offenders and patrons to fly under the radar from law enforcement and use free, public WiFi services to view or distribute graphic or obscene pornography, child pornography (an illegal crime), or engage in sexual predation activity.”
