Unhappy Meal: Pornography at McDonald

By Asrokhel
in Real World News

 Share

Should people who watch pornography in 'family restaurants' be banned from the establishments?  

60 members have voted

  1. 1. Should people who watch pornography in 'family restaurants' be banned from the establishments?

    • Yes!
      40
    • No!
      20

Recommended Posts

Mentor

Asrokhel

Posted
Posted

TORONTO - Jill-Anne Hopkins always considered McDonald?s a family restaurant.

That changed Sunday when she had to shield her eight-year-old?s ears from loud, explicit pornography in the next booth over.

Hopkins was enjoying cheeseburgers with her ex-husband and their son, Grant, in a Keswick McDonald?s around 6 p.m. when they heard a woman?s voice say sultrily, ?I want you to come over here and f--- me.?

Startled, she looked over and noticed a man on his laptop chatting to a topless woman on a webcam sex site.

?My son?s head popped right up and said, ?Who said that??? she said. ?I said, ?Someone with a bad potty mouth who doesn?t realize there are children at McDonald?s.? And then the talk continued. I don?t know if he was touching himself under the table.?

As Hopkins, 43, moved her family over to another spot across the virtually-deserted fast-food joint on Woodbine Ave., she heard the woman on the computer hiss, ?By the way, tell that broad to go f--- herself. Did she hear me or should I say it louder??

The family finished their meal and while Grant was in the play area, Hopkins approached the manager and told her about the man, who appeared to be in his mid-20s, watching porn. The manager spoke to the man, but he didn?t leave for another 20 minutes. She doesn?t know whether he shut down the website.

Hopkins said because the restaurant chain provides free wireless Internet to customers, the company should be responsible for making sure inappropriate videos can?t be accessed at their locations.

?They didn?t even come over and apologize that my son had to see that,? she said, adding a customer representative was rude to her when she called to complain the next day. ?I would like an apology. Who watches porn with children around??

McDonald?s Canada said it?s impossible to tell whether the man in question was accessing the Internet through their free Wi-Fi or through another network or wireless stick.

Customers accessing the Wi-Fi must agree to their terms and conditions, which include not viewing pornography, McDonald?s spokesman Stephanie Sorensen said. There are also filters switched on preventing offensive material.

?We would absolutely ask them to stop watching it,? Sorensen said. ?We?re a family restaurant. There are a lot of sites that are banned.?

Sorensen said the company on Thursday reviewed video footage of the incident, which captures Hopkins? family and the man on his computer.

?The gentleman was conducting a webcam conversation and wearing ear buds as he is hearing impaired,? she said. ?In approaching the gentleman, the restaurant manager on duty witnessed nothing inappropriate but did confirm it was a webcam conversation with a female. The manager asked him to lower his voice and avoid using any profanity (which the customer said he was using). The gentleman apologized and agreed to do so.?

McDonald?s added the customer service representative Hopkins dealt with on the phone apologized and advised her of the content filtering software.

?(They) were under the impression the customer was satisfied with how the situation was handled both in the restaurant and on the call,? Sorensen said.

http://www.torontosu...alds-upsets-mom

Grand Master

Southern Patriot

Posted
Posted

Last I checked, a topless woman (in Canada at least) isn't considered pornography. So he was, strictly speaking, abiding by the terms & conditions of the WiFi usage. Yeah, he shouldn't have been using profanity there, but otherwise, I really don't see where he did anything else wrong.

Experienced

RiverCampher

Posted
Posted

Fair enough, what happened here was no story and could happen anywhere really. Tbh the guy should've been arrested for broadcasting it in a public area, that would be more suitable action rather than asking him to turn it off politely. It's not loud music, it's porn for goodness sake.

As far as access goes, he could've just VPN'd out, some proxy server or whatever. McD's can do their best, but you can't block all methods on open PC's easily.

Mentor

Colin McGregor

Posted
Posted

misleading title. He wasn't watching porn he was video chatting with a topless girl. I have friends that don't like wearing clothes when they get home, they walk around topless even if I go over to hang out.

  • Southern Patriot and Glassed Silver
  • Like 2
Grand Master

Southern Patriot

Posted
Posted

As the article stated, they can't even be sure he was using the restaurant's WiFi. And again, a webcam chat with a topless woman (if she even was topless, since the manager couldn't confirm that) isn't really porn. If it were, there are lots of PG-13 rated movies out there that are porn as well.

Grand Master

LaP

Posted
Posted
Hopkins was enjoying cheeseburgers with her ex-husband and their son, Grant, in a Keswick McDonald?s around 6 p.m. when they heard a woman?s voice say sultrily, ?I want you to come over here and f--- me.?

Startled, she looked over and noticed a man on his laptop chatting to a topless woman on a webcam sex site.

rofl that's priceless

BTW i can't answer the pool as the guy was not actually watching porn but having a web cam chat.

Grand Master

Obi-Wan Kenobi

Posted
Posted

Down here, you can watch free porn driving down the interstate. I've seen it dozens of times...large SUV with the drop-down video screen for the DVD player. True story! ;)

I'm sorry for the people that had to witness or go through that, though. McD's is NOT the place you go to do anything like THAT. Sick-o! :crazy:

Grand Master

Glassed Silver

Posted
Posted

misleading title. He wasn't watching porn he was video chatting with a topless girl. I have friends that don't like wearing clothes when they get home, they walk around topless even if I go over to hang out.

Ontario you say?

Hmmm...

Glassed Silver:mac

  • Japlabot, Charisma and remixedcat
  • Like 3
Grand Master

Noir Angel

Posted
Posted

Maybe not technically illegal but a bit of a disrespectful thing to do in a restaurant that you know is attended by families and children. I'm pretty liberal in all but in my opinion he overstepped the line. McDonalds also took far too long to kick him out IMO.

Grand Master

Denis W. Veteran

Posted
  • Veteran
Posted

misleading title. He wasn't watching porn he was video chatting with a topless girl. I have friends that don't like wearing clothes when they get home, they walk around topless even if I go over to hang out.

It's the Toronto Sun, so not surprising of them to throw things out of context. :rolleyes:

Last I checked, a topless woman (in Canada at least) isn't considered pornography. So he was, strictly speaking, abiding by the terms & conditions of the WiFi usage. Yeah, he shouldn't have been using profanity there, but otherwise, I really don't see where he did anything else wrong.

True. In public spaces anyway. There's a nude beach somewhere here...

But McDonald's and other private establishments can and should enforce house rules. You're there at a restaurant to eat and chat, not be disruptive to other patrons. Same thing applies if this guy were to cyber chat in a library.

Well McDonald's did change their restaurants to be more adult oriented, instead of being designed for children.

Now that you mention it, the modern day Play Places are quite lame, if a particular location still has a Play Place.

  • Glassed Silver
  • Like 1
Grand Master

Southern Patriot

Posted
Posted

True. In public spaces anyway. There's a nude beach somewhere here...

But McDonald's and other private establishments can and should enforce house rules. You're there at a restaurant to eat and chat, not be disruptive to other patrons. Same thing applies if this guy were to cyber chat in a library.

Now that you mention it, the modern day Play Places are quite lame, if a particular location still has a Play Place.

Play Places here are actually pretty nice, depending on the location. My point about the topless woman is that legally there would be no difference between the guy talking to a topless man and a topless woman. Neither would (or should) be considered pornography in this instance. If there were other things being shown on the screen, then yeah, but the manager didn't witness anything inappropriate, which leads me to believe that the woman was having a hissy fit and making up details to make her story get more attention than it deserved.

  • Brandon H, Glassed Silver and Charisma
  • Like 3
Grand Master

Noir Angel

Posted
Posted

If McDonalds tried to go adult only, they'd lose a lot of business. IMO not worth doing so an incredibly tiny portion of their customers can watch pr0n on their free wifi.

Grand Master

Southern Patriot

Posted
Posted

Maybe not technically illegal but a bit of a disrespectful thing to do in a restaurant that you know is attended by families and children. I'm pretty liberal in all but in my opinion he overstepped the line. McDonalds also took far too long to kick him out IMO.

You might want to read over the article again. They didn't kick him out. The manager spoke to him, saw nothing inappropriate, but asked him to not use profanity, which he agreed to.

Grand Master

Noir Angel

Posted
Posted

You might want to read over the article again. They didn't kick him out. The manager spoke to him, saw nothing inappropriate, but asked him to not use profanity, which he agreed to.

In that case then, McDonalds screwed up as well. The kids may not hear the swearing but they'd only have to look over at the screen to see what was happening.

Grand Master

Growled Member

Posted
  • Member
Posted

There is a time and a place for everything. I don't consider McDonald's (or any public place really) as a proper place for that kind of activity. Seeing a man or a woman naked on a computer screen is no different than seeing them actually sitting in a booth naked.

Grand Master

Denis W. Veteran

Posted
  • Veteran
Posted

Play Places here are actually pretty nice, depending on the location. My point about the topless woman is that legally there would be no difference between the guy talking to a topless man and a topless woman. Neither would (or should) be considered pornography in this instance. If there were other things being shown on the screen, then yeah, but the manager didn't witness anything inappropriate, which leads me to believe that the woman was having a hissy fit and making up details to make her story get more attention than it deserved.

Yeah the Play Places used to be nice as a kid... I can't tell for sure if they're dumbing them down :p

Also while legally being topless is fine for both genders, many except for a few women still perceive topless women in public in a negative manner, automatically leading to pornographic calls. These are the same folks that cried foul over our new plastic $20 bill, which contained a war memorial with - yup - breasts. http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/05/11/dirty-money-is-canadas-new-20-bill-pornographic/

What you said could also be possible. But on the other hand, it's also possible the man was indeed cyber sexing with a topless lady (who apparently has just as much of an attitude as the mother in this story) and hid the window before the manager could intervene.

Grand Master

Southern Patriot

Posted
Posted

In that case then, McDonalds screwed up as well. The kids may not hear the swearing but they'd only have to look over at the screen to see what was happening.

What part of the line "the manager saw nothing inappropriate" are you not understanding? We only have the word of mother that there was ever anything "pornographic" on the screen. In most parts of Canada, a woman can legally walk down the street topless, so how is it suddenly pornographic if she happens to appear on someone's computer screen that way? The mother never even claimed to have seen anything on the screen other than a topless woman. No sexual acts, no genitals, nothing. I'll take the word of the restaurant manager over a hysterical busybody mother any day.

What you said could also be possible. But on the other hand, it's also possible the man was indeed cyber sexing with a topless lady (who apparently has just as much of an attitude as the mother in this story) and hid the window before the manager could intervene.

The manager confirmed that he was doing a video chat with a woman (which I assume means that the chat window was still up), but saw nothing inappropriate. The only issue the manager had was with his language.

This really does sound like a case of the woman being offended by the language her kids heard, then embellishing the story to make it sound even worse. We only have her word to go on that the woman on the screen was even topless.

  • remixedcat, Glassed Silver and Charisma
  • Like 3
Grand Master

remixedcat

Posted
Posted

When I was at a Denny's in VA beach this forum was blocked on thier Wifi for bad content... I was like WTF? and switched to 3G.... It was a crappy denny's too!!!!

This topic is now closed to further replies.
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.

  • Posts

    • Price Drop: Save 86% on Microsoft Office 2021 Professional Plus lifetime digital license

      By News Staff · Posted

      Price Drop: Save 86% on Microsoft Office 2021 Professional Plus lifetime digital license by Steven Parker Today's highlighted deal comes via our Apps + Software section of the Neowin Deals store, where you can save 86% on a lifetime license to Microsoft Office 2021 for Windows. This bundle is for families and small businesses who want classic Office apps and email. It includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, and OneNote. A one-time purchase installed on 1 Windows PC for use at home or work. Lifetime license for MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, & OneNote One-time purchase installed on 1 Windows PC for use at home or work Instant Delivery & Download – access your software license keys and download links instantly Free customer service – only the best support! Microsoft Office Professional 2021 (for Windows) includes: Microsoft Office Word Microsoft Office Excel Microsoft Office PowerPoint Microsoft Office Outlook Microsoft Office Teams Microsoft Office OneNote Microsoft Office Publisher Microsoft Office Access No faffing about with subscriptions, just classic apps that don't expire. Good to Know ONE-TIME PURCHASE INSTALLED ON 1 DEVICE Redemption deadline: redeem your code within 30 days of purchase Access options: desktop Full versions No subscriptions – no monthly/annual fees Version: 2021 Updates included* *Support for this version of Office ends on Oct 13, 2026 A lifetime subscription to Microsoft Office 2021 Professional normally costs $219.99, but this deal can be yours for just $29.97, that's a saving of $190. For full terms, specifications, and license info, click the link below. Get Microsoft Office Professional 2021 for just $29.97, or learn more Although priced in U.S. dollars, this deal is available for digital purchase worldwide. Support queries If you have queries or need support for any of the Neowin Deals, please use the contact form here. Neowin Deals are managed and sold by StackCommerce who represent Neowin on an affiliate basis. Why we post these deals We post these because we earn commission on each sale so as not to rely solely on advertising, which many of our readers block. It all helps toward paying staff reporters, servers and hosting costs. So for those that keep moaning and complaining, be thankful we're still online for you to even do that. Other ways to support Neowin Whitelist Neowin by not blocking our ads Create a free member account to see fewer ads Make a donation to support our day to day running costs Subscribe to Neowin - for $14 a year, or $28 a year for an ad-free experience Disclosure: Neowin benefits from revenue of each sale made through our branded deals site powered by StackCommerce.
    • The Trump administration doesn't want you to use OpenAI's GPT-5.6 without its approval

      By ad47uk · Posted

      The only reason I want to know where you from is because if you are not from the U.K, then why should you care what we in the U.K do or don't do? Racist I am not, I am fed up with the amount coming over here and feel they can come over here and think we need to support them. Do you know how much it costs this country to support these people coming over here? Even when we give them a place to live it is not good enough. We had a barge that was being used to house immigrants, oh but that was not good enough. A mate said to me at the time, when he was homeless, he would have been happy to live on the barge, instead of ending up sleeping on a bench on the beach. I am not scared to say what my family heritage is, unlike you who is scared to say where they are from or where they live. Father side U.S, mother side Wales, still have family living in the U.S. A mate who sadly died a few years ago, had a load of people from different races recording in his studio, I got on with all of them. Skin colour don't bother me, where they are from don't bother me. Religion don't bother me as long as they don't push it onto me and it is not crazy stuff. I am not religious. But if you are not living in the U.K, then why should you care if we are in the E.U or not? This the problem, too many people poking their noses into where it don't belong. But you believe what you believe, if you think I am racist, then be it, I really do not care. Just grow a pair
    • Why it's almost impossible to produce a smartphone in the United States

      By dismuter · Posted

      If he hasn't been able to figure that out, then why is he obsessed with tariffs? Because that's one of the most prominent tools to level the playing field when you have high cost of labor.
    • Microsoft released Windows 11 KB5102558, KB5095615 Setup and Recovery updates

      By hellowalkman · Posted

      Microsoft released Windows 11 KB5102558, KB5095615 Setup and Recovery updates by Sayan Sen This past week Microsoft released the newest preview update (C-release) under KB5095093. Alongside those, Microsoft also released new dynamic updates. For those who may not know, dynamic updates bring improvements to the Windows Recovery process in the form of Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) updates, which are also called Safe OS updates. The dynamic updates also affect the Setup file binaries in the form of Setup updates. These Dynamic Update packages are meant to be applied to existing Windows images prior to their deployment. Dynamic Updates also help preserve Language Pack (LP) and Features on Demand (FODs) content during the upgrade process. VBScript, for example, is currently an FOD on Windows 11 24H2. This time both recovery and setup updates were released for Windows 11. The company writes: "KB5095186: Safe OS Dynamic Update for Windows 11, version 26H1: June 23, 2026 This update makes improvements to the Windows recovery environment (WinRE). After installing this update, the WinRE version installed on the device should be 10.0.28000.2335. KB5102558: Setup Dynamic Update for Windows 11, versions 24H2 and 25H2: June 23, 2026 This update makes improvements to Windows setup binaries or any files that setup uses for feature updates in Windows 11, version 24H2 and Windows 11, version 25H2. KB5095615: Safe OS Dynamic Update for Windows 11, versions 24H2 and 25H2: June 23, 2026 This update makes improvements to the Windows recovery environment (WinRE). After installing this update, the WinRE version installed on the device should be 10.0.26100.8737." Microsoft notes that both the Recovery and Setup updates will be downloaded and installed automatically via the Windows Update channel.
    • Politically funny images of the World

      By +Edouard · Posted

  • Recent Achievements

    • Conversation Starter
      jessse3334 earned a badge
      Conversation Starter
    • Reacting Well
      JuvenileDelinquent earned a badge
      Reacting Well
    • One Month Later
      Excellence2025 earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • Week One Done
      Excellence2025 earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • Week One Done
      flexorcist earned a badge
      Week One Done

  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      508
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      200
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      151
    4. 4
      Steven P.
      73
    5. 5
      macoman
      62
    Show More

  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!