Web Browsing in NYC Internet Kiosks Scuttled After Excessive Porn Use

Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. Where there’s a will, there’s a way. And where there’s an internet connection, there’s going to be porn. NYC officials apparently forgot that when they installed internet “phone booths” across the Big Apple earlier this year and now have decided to disable internet browsing at all 400 existing kiosks. You’ll still be able to use the other features of the booths, including free phone calls, Wi-Fi and access to maps and city services . . . but logging in and watching your favorite Kendra Lust clip as you pause during your stroll down W. 45th? Well, on that score, you’ll be out of luck.

“These kiosks are often monopolized by individuals creating personal spaces for themselves, engaging in activities that include playing loud explicit music, consuming drugs and alcohol, and the viewing of pornography,” said New York councilman Corey Johnson in the New York Times. “I don’t think anybody should be able to sit there and watch movies all day long,” elaborated Gail Brewer, Manhattan’s borough president. “People are pulling up sofas or chairs or what have you.”

Web filters were added to the kiosks not long after they debuted, but as any frustrated office manager will tell you, web filters won’t always weed out all of the naughty content. “The [no browsing] switch is an admission that in some neighborhoods, particularly in Midtown Manhattan, the kiosks have created more problems than benefits,” said the Times‘ Patrick McGeehan.

“I used to come here in the ’70s, and I remember thinking Times Square was as skeezy as you could get, but I was wrong,” Richard Herzberg said in an article from the New York Post. “This is as skeezy as Times Square could get. I mean, in the old days there was plenty of porn, but you could only see it behind closed doors. So at least there was that level of modesty.”

Read more here.

Featured image: Streets of New York 12