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.

  • Glassed Silver and Southern Patriot
  • 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

  • Charisma, Japlabot 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, Charisma and Glassed Silver
  • 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.

  • Charisma, remixedcat and Glassed Silver
  • 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

    • Apple MacBook Neo is a blessing for Windows users, here's why

      By Pandadriver · Posted

      Just install Linux Mint that is a real blessing and many times cheaper because you can continue using your old Windows computer/laptop with the latest Linux updates.
    • Why Delta Chat is the best decentralized messenger you have probably never tried

      By Nas · Posted

      Interesting share -- however it does not make sense: Email messages get stored somewhere, so how is Delta Chat "based on email" and decentralized without actually storing anything? By Web3 standard practices, the various Relays would require dedicated storage to make messages available to the recipients (like a large series of message queue channels, akin to racks of traditional post office boxes)... and Contacts must be two-way confirmed in order for encryption keys to be exchanged (ostensibly every key-pair is uniquely bound between sender and recipient) and the Relays would preserve the public keys in order to facilitate message carriage... or every device stores all sorts of keys and contact info. All of this to say, decentralized messaging is like running Bluesky nodes except instead of discovering/browsing public feeds by various posters (at the given node) these Delta Chats would be relaying encrypted messages (via Relays) that only trusted recipients would have the appropriate decryption key (their own private key) to read it. But this doesn't solve the "it's like email" sales pitch. The only way it's like email is that there's encrypted binary stuff being transported from your app into the federated ether of Delta Chat Relays for others to decrypt (hopefully only the intended recipient)... but outside of this federated relays framework, it is absolutely nothing like email.
    • Hasleo Backup Suite Free 5.8.2.2

      By Copernic · Posted

      Hasleo Backup Suite Free 5.8.2.2 by Razvan Serea Hasleo Backup Suite Free is a free Windows backup and restore software, which embeds backup, restore and cloning features, it is designed for Windows operating system users and can be used on both Windows PCs and Servers. The backup and restore feature of Hasleo Backup Suite can help you back up and restore the Windows operating systems, disks, partitions and files (folders) to protect the security of your Windows operating system and personal data. The cloning feature of Hasleo Backup Suite can help you migrate Windows to another disk, or easily upgrade a disk to an SSD or a larger capacity disk. System Backup & Restore / Disk/Partition Backup & Restore Backup Windows operating system and boot-related partitions, including user settings, drivers and applications installed in these partitions, which ensures that you can quickly restore your Windows operating system once it crashes. Viruses, power failure, or other unknown reasons may cause data loss, so it is a good habit to regularly back up the drive that stores important files, you can at least recover lost files from the backup image files in the event of a disaster. System Clone / Disk Clone / Partition Clone Migrate the Windows operating system from one disk to another SSD or larger disk without reinstalling Windows, applications and drivers. Clone entire disk to another disk and ensure that the contents of the source disk and the destination disk are exactly the same. Clone a partition completely to the specified location on the current disk or another disk and ensure that the data will not be changed. File Backup & Restore Back up specified files(folders) instead of the entire drive to another location to protect your data, so you can quickly restore files(folders) from the backup image files when needed. Incremental/Differential/Full Backup Different backup modes are supported, you can flexibly choose data protection schemes, which can improve backup performance and save storage space while ensuring data security. Delta Restore Delta restore uses advanced delta detection technology to check the changed blocks on the destination drive and restore only the changed blocks, so it has a faster restore speed than the traditional full restore. Universal Restore This feature can help us restore the Windows operating system to computers with different hardware and ensure that Windows can work normally without any hardware compatibility issues. Hasleo Backup Suite 5.8.2.2 changelog: Improved creation of bootable media that supports the UEFI CA 2023 certificate Fixed an issue that caused system restore to fail Fixed an issue where file backup could not list drives under Windows ARM64 Fixed an issue that caused backup of MacOS files/folders shared via Samba to fail Fixed an issue that caused "Smart Backup" to not work properly Fixed other minor bugs Download: Hasleo Backup Suite 5.8.2.2 | 39.7 MB (Freeware) Links: Hasleo Backup Suite Website | Hasleo Backup Suite Guide | Screenshot Get alerted to all of our Software updates on Twitter at @NeowinSoftware
    • Shotcut 26.6.25

      By Copernic · Posted

      Shotcut 26.6.25 by Razvan Serea Shotcut is a free, open source, cross-platform video editor for Windows, Mac and Linux. Major features include support for a wide range of formats; no import required meaning native timeline editing; Blackmagic Design support for input and preview monitoring; and resolution support to 4k. Editing Features Trimming on source clip player or timeline with ripple option Append, insert, overwrite, lift, and ripple delete editing on the timeline 3-point editing Hide, mute, and lock track controls Multitrack timeline with thumbnails and waveforms Unlimited undo and redo for playlist edits including a history view Create, play, edit, save, load, encode, and stream MLT XML projects (with auto-save) Save and load trimmed clip as MLT XML file Load and play complex MLT XML file as a clip Drag-n-drop files from file manager Scrubbing and transport control Video Effects Video compositing across video tracks HTML5 (sans audio and video) as video source and filters 3-way (shadows, mids, highlights) color wheels for color correction and grading Eye dropper tool to pick neutral color for white balancing Deinterlacing Auto-rotate Fade in/out audio and fade video from and to black with easy-to-use fader controls on timeline Video wipe transitions: bar, barn door, box, clock (radial), diagonal, iris, matrix, and custom gradient image Track compositing/blending modes: Over, Add, Saturate, Multiply, Screen, Overlay, Darken, Dodge, Burn, Hard Light, Soft Light, Difference, Exclusion, HSL Hue, HSL Saturation, HSL Color, HSL Luminosity. Video Filters: Alpha Channel: Adjust, Alpha Channel: View, Blur, Brightness, Chroma Key: Advanced, Chroma Key: Simple, Contrast, Color Grading, Crop, Diffusion, Glow, Invert Colors, Key Spill: Advanced, Key Spill: Simple, Mirror, Old Film: Dust, Old Film: Grain, Old Film: Projector, Old Film: Scratches, Old Film: Technocolor, Opacity, Rotate, Rutt-Etra-Izer, Saturation, Sepia Tone, Sharpen, Size and Position, Stabilize, Text, Vignette, Wave, White Balance Speed effect for audio/video clips Hardware Support Blackmagic Design SDI and HDMI for input and preview monitoring Leap Motion for jog/shuttle control Webcam capture Audio capture to system audio card Capture (record) SDI, HDMI, webcam (V4L2), JACK audio, PulseAudio, IP stream, X11 screen, and Windows DirectShow devices Multi-core parallel image processing (when not using GPU and frame-dropping is disabled) DeckLink SDI keyer output OpenGL GPU-based image processing with 16-bit floating point linear per color component Shotcut 26.6.25 changelog highlights: Added basic support for OpenFX (OFX) video plugins. Added VST2 audio plugin support for third-party audio effects. Added Safe Mode to launch Shotcut without external plugins for easier crash recovery. Added an experimental plugin UI generator (--experimental) for supported filters and plugins. Added a new Noise Reduction audio filter powered by RNNoise. Added HDR export support. Added PQ HDR metadata options for HDR exports. Added the ability to view HDR previews in full-screen mode. Improved Vulkan display support on Linux. Fixed DeckLink and UltraStudio external monitor deadlocks. Fixed Opus audio export warnings related to frame_duration. Improved plugin discovery and compatibility for supported OpenFX and VST2 plugins. Expanded command-line options for testing experimental features. Improved overall application stability when using third-party plugins. Enhanced HDR editing and preview workflow. Included numerous bug fixes, performance optimizations, and general stability improvements throughout the application.[full release notes] Download: Shotcut 26.6.25 | Portable | ARM64 ~200.0 MB (Open Source) View: Shotcut Home Page | Other Operating Systems | Screenshot Get alerted to all of our Software updates on Twitter at @NeowinSoftware
    • Limited Prime Day deal sees Amazon Echo Show 11 is at its lowest price yet

      By ExecutiveFunction404 · Posted

      I looked into a few echo devices to find they were riddled with adverts over time. No thanks ill stick to my homeassistant, smart plugs, smart bulbs and cameras that don't cost me a monthly fee and are cheaper to buy. No adverts also.

  • Recent Achievements

    • Week One Done
      Woland13 earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • One Month Later
      Woland13 earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • One Year In
      bernmeister earned a badge
      One Year In
    • Week One Done
      Scoobystu earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • Week One Done
      tuben earned a badge
      Week One Done

  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      504
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      229
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      163
    4. 4
      Steven P.
      76
    5. 5
      FloatingFatMan
      71
    Show More

  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!