I’M LOVIN’ IT: McDONALD’S MAKES PROTECTING CHILDREN AND FAMILIES FROM INTERNET PORNOGRAPHY AND CHILD PORNOGRAPHYTOP PRIORITY
By Carmen Russo
Enough Is Enough Praises Worldwide Chain for Internet Safety Leadership
Washington, D.C.—Enough Is Enough (EIE), the nation’s pioneering Internet safety
organization today praised the McDonald’s corporation® for their decision to filter
public Wi-Fi from pornography and child pornography.
EIE launched its “National Porn Free Wi-Fi” campaign” in the fall of 2014, with
nearly 50,000 petitions and 75 partner organizations encouraging McDonald’s and
Starbucks to lead Corporate America in filtering Wi-Fi. Both companies were early
adopters in the U.K., where they voluntarily filtered pornography on their public
WiFi networks. McDonald’s responded rapidly and positively to the initial outreach
to their CEO by EIE in spring 2014, and began exploring options for WiFi filtering.
To date, Starbucks has yet to respond.
In the first quarter of 2016, McDonald’s began to implement their new filtered WiFi
policy in their corporate-owned restaurants in the U.S., and made the same service
available to their franchisees. While McDonald’s wasn’t aware of any pornography
related incidents in their stores, their move to offer filtered WiFi is clearly one
more major step in the right direction. The bottom line – the majority of McDonald’s
restaurants now offer safer WiFi access for their patrons.
“Parents can have peace of mind that, when they or their children go to McDonald’s,
they will have a safer and more friendly WiFi experience, filtered from pornography,
from child porn and from potential sexual exploitation and predation,” said EIE
President Donna Rice Hughes. “McDonald’s deserves widespread praise for this act of
corporate responsibility and commitment to children and family safety.»
By proactively filtering pornography and child porn on their WiFi, McDonald’s now
joins others such as Chick-fil-A and Panera Bread demonstrating their commitment to
provide safe and secure WiFi resulting in a family friendly environment for all of
their patrons.
“Internet safety is now the fourth top-ranked health issue for U.S. children with
peer-reviewed research confirming Internet pornography as a public health crisis.
There are many studies on the deleterious effects of Internet pornography on the
developing brains of children and teens and the fueling role of porn on child sexual
exploitation. Parents need to know which family restaurants are safe from online
threats. Other companies would be wise to follow McDonald’s lead,” said Mrs.
Hughes.
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Enough Is Enough® is a national bi-partisan non-profit organization who has led the
fight to make the Internet safer for children and families since 1994. EIE’s efforts
are focused on combating Internet p*rnography, child p*rnography, sexual predation,
and cyberbullying by incorporating a three-pronged prevention strategy with shared
responsibilities between the public, Corporate America, and the legal community.
www.enough.org
For more information or to arrange an interview, contact Kevin McVicker with Shirley
& Banister Public Affairs at (703) 739-5920 or kmcvicker@sbpublicaffairs.com.If
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