News

LinkNYC turns off Wi-Fi kiosk browsers to stem porn viewing, loitering

September 20, 2016

New York City residents' complaints regarding the use of new Wi-Fi kiosks to watch porn is prompting LinkNYC, the company that deployed the kiosks, to cut off internet browser use.

LinkNYC has taken down web browsing on the tablets, according to a New York Times report, but users can still use Wi-Fi on their own devices. The kiosks do not have any filters installed on the Wi-Fi network so users could still use them for porn. The company also plans to introduce new features for the kiosk.

The kiosks are designed to offer free Wi-Fi, cell phone charging and a tablet to access the internet or browse maps. LinkNYC intended for users to only stay a short at the kiosks, but homeless people began setting up makeshift camps and some used the kiosk to browse porn sites.

"People are congregating around these Links to the point where they're bringing furniture and building little encampments clustered around them," Barbara A. Blair, president of the Garment District Alliance, a business group in Manhattan, told the Times. "It's created this really unfortunate and actually deplorable condition."