Porno Surfing At I-Cafés
Viewing pornographic sites inside i-cafés should not be allowed. Many cities and municipalities in the country already have local ordinances prohibiting the act with appropriate penalties to boot. Most ordinances provide penalties for both the customer and the i-café owner caught violating the prohibition. Penalties range from a few thousand pesos for first and second time offenders to shop closure on third violation. In spite of this, discussions on forums of i-café owners reveal that there are still some internet shops that allow their customers to open and view pornographic sites.
Worldwide statistics show that around forty-two (42%) percent of those surfing the web daily visit pornographic sites. I would presume that majority of these porno visitors do their surfing in the privacy of their homes. I cannot imagine a big number doing it in a public place like inside an i-café, but who knows if the low revenue generation had really taken toll on i-café owners so that they allow such misdeeds to happen inside their establishments.
The question of how the local authorities would check the violation of surfing porno sites by i-café customers cropped-up in the early days of implementing ordinance with such prohibition. There were those who say that a violation is committed if the authorities caught an i-café customer doing the act. A typical provision in the ordinance compels the i-cafés to have posters in prominent areas saying “Surfing Of Pornographic Sites Is Prohibited” but we all know that this is not enough to exact compliance from some hard-headed i-cafe customers.
The issue of determining the compliance of an i-café owner to the ordinance prohibiting the surfing of pornographic sites by its customers was resolved by compelling the establishment to install software that will filter or block the unwanted porno sites. When doing inspection, all that a local authority must do is go to a computer station in an i-cafe, type a known pornographic site on its browser and see if the site will open.
Some local government units even went to the extent of issuing list of porno sites that should be blocked obligatorily and use the same list when doing the inspection. The list is issued without prejudice to i-café owner’s obligation to filter or block all porno sites as much as they could. Pornographic sites are being created every minute of the day so i-café owners must be vigilant enough to see if some smart i-café goers skirt his filter.
NOTE: Your response is welcome here but if you wish, you may proceed to Café Forum for your questions and comments.
However, software that filter websites is really not enough.
I installed K-9 Web Filter on the computer of my wife’s sister (as per their request). One time, out of curiosity, I vnc’d to their computer and caught someone viewing porno from youtube. It struck me cause I can’t block youtube.
It still falls down on how cafe owners are monitoring their users. Unfortunately, for some colorum cafe’s, the owner is the one sharing links, etc. of porn sites/videos.
To be honest, yesterday, still out of curiosity, me and my wife watched the current celebrity+doctor scandal from, guess where, youtube.
I agree that watching porn at a cafe hot-spot or Wi-Fi is really out of line; However, there are too many people out there that are exhibitionistic and want people to see their stuff on their screen because that’s what they get off on. I know this from experience because I have seen it at several places in the locality I am in. Small town sort of thing and believe it or not, it was a woman who was repeatedly getting in trouble at a few of the locations because of this!
@dodimar and others
monitoring your customer’s personal internet browsing habit is violating your customer’s privacy and it is no different for someone who violated your icafe rule regarding surfing for pornography. both are illegal under the law.
if you want to make sure read any privacy law or tell your customers that you are monitoring their computer/internet usage, put a big note about it, and i bet you they will not rent anymore to your place.
as an icafe owner, would you rent to any icafe and login to your personal email and other stuff if you know beforehand that they will monitor your internet usage?
think about always “the golden rule”
SO PLEASE STOP USING MONITORING TOOLS TO YOUR CUSTOMERS. IT’S AGAINST EVERYONE’S PRIVACY.
I don;’t think it’s right at all to view pron in a public place, children could easily catch a glimpse and I would be very angry if that happened to my kids. It’s a private and personal thing and should remain that way.