You Have About A Month Left To Watch Porn At Starbucks

The other day I glanced over at a fellow train commuter in an adjacent seat, and immediately regretted it. He was watching porn. On the train. I'm not a prude or anything, but I couldn't help but wonder: To what end, dude?

Turns out, my fellow commuter is not alone in his love for porn in public. While many libraries are fairly open about porn viewing, citing first amendment rights, private establishments are becoming more vigilant. For example, Starbucks says that next year it will be "rolling out a new tool meant to stop customers from watching pornography and viewing other explicit content in stores." This makes the using the Starbucks bathroom a bit more horrifying, now that I know that this was a somewhat common practice.

While chains like McDonald's and Chick-fil-A have installed explicit content blocks to their wifi, Starbucks has so far failed to follow up on a 2016 pledge it made to do so. Business Insider says that "Starbucks declined to give details on the solution but said the company tested multiple tools, hoping to avoid accidentally blocking unoffensive sites." When I worked at the American Library Association several years ago, I remember that the fear seemed to be that blockers could possibly prevent people from looking up information on breast cancer, for example, or pregnancy.

That 2019 deadline seems pretty vague, but nevertheless, the clock is ticking, Starbucks porn lovers! If you're looking for a new viewing spot, I beg of you, please refrain on the train.