Unhappy Meal: Pornography at McDonald

[Asrokhel]

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

[Southern Patriot]

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.

[RiverCampher]

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.

[Colin McGregor]

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]

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.

[LaP]

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.

[Klownicle]

The people who voted no to the poll must watch porn at family joints heh.

[Obi-Wan Kenobi]

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:

[Glassed Silver]

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

[LUTZIFER]

I guess the guy with the laptop ordered a fir burger and a side of thighs.

[jakem1]

Hopkins was enjoying cheeseburgers

That seems unlikely.

[shakey]

DONT ASK FOR THE SPECIAL SAUCE!

[Noir Angel]

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.

[xpablo]

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

[Denis W. Veteran]

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.

[Southern Patriot]

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.

[Noir Angel]

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.

[Southern Patriot]

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.

[Noir Angel]

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.

[soniqstylz]

Was he handling his McNuggets?

[Growled Member]

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.

[Denis W. Veteran]

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.

[Southern Patriot]

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.

[hotdog666al]

Pro tip: Don't go to McDonald's. ?

[remixedcat]

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!!!!