5 ms·
New York's Wi-Fi kiosks disabled after complaints of people watching
- wepple 10y agoThe title has an unfortunate cut-off, I assumed this article was about 'people watching', not 'people watching porn' I wonder if there's an opportunity to provide useful information to the homeless via these systems? It may end up becoming their one source of reliable communications.
- dexterdog 10y agoIt's like clickbait custom-written for HN. If the title had been complete I would have thought "of course" and not clicked. As it turned out I wound up clicking and reading the article and then thinking "of course." Well-played, title trimmer.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- evoloution 10y agoYou would be surprised how much effort has been put to improve the quality of life of the homeless population in NYC. For example every homeless is entitled to a shelter and they have access to food and emergency healthcare, let alone the opportunity to enjoy public spaces. This is in direct contrast of what's happening in other US cities. The total homelessness in US is dropping but there is I think around a 40% increase in the homeless population in NYC. I have been waiting some time now for an investigative journalist to come up with an article that reads something like "The great migration of the homeless".
- koolba 10y ago> You would be surprised how much effort has been put to improve the quality of life of the homeless population in NYC. Access to the internet, and porn specifically, is definitely a quality of life improvement.
- humanrebar 10y ago> ...every homeless is entitled to a shelter and they have access to food and emergency healthcare... Do someone have more information about this?
- eternalban 10y agohttp://www1.nyc.gov/site/hra/help/i-need-help.page http://www1.nyc.gov/site/hra/help/i-need-help.page
- mattzito 10y agoNYC has a 40% increase in the homeless population entirely because of the dismantling of homeless support services, including rental subsidy and the closing of shelters. It's not a great migration, it is that there were a lot of people who were in subsidized rentals or adult shelters that are now back on the street. http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/10/21/nyregion/new-york-homeless-people.html?_r=0 http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/10/21/nyregion/new-y...
- superuser2 10y ago>For example every homeless is entitled to a shelter This is an empty mandate unless there is actually money to fund >= 1 shelter bed per homeless person.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- discardorama 10y agoAnybody who has spent even 5 minutes in a public library knows that this is a big problem with public computers. So why was this a surprise?
- vertex-four 10y agoSince when does city Government talk to libraries? :p
- sp332 10y agoIt's not a surprise. A particular case generated enough noise to generate a lot of negative feedback. http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/09/after-lewd-acts-nycs-free-internet-kiosks-disable-web-browsing/ http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/09/after-...
- Lendal 10y agoI actually read the whole article. The porn part was an afterthought at the end, but it appears the editor decided to promote that part into the title, because clicks. Music videos and extended use was the actual main culprit. My takeaway is, why roll out wifi if you don't want people to use it?
- jrowley 10y agoI believe there is actually a screen on the device, so people are actually watching porn on the public kiosk, as opposed to their own device which is connected to the kiosk via wifi.
- evoloution 10y agoYes, there is a screen. I can verify people chilling at the kiosk while having youtube videos playing for hours. I have not seen people watching porn though...
- JustUhThought 10y agoYup. Reading the (short) article one sees they still have wifi for personal devices. So, now can only abuse if have a phn, tablet, or laptop (or watch, all these form factors!)
- jessaustin 10y agoIf Taco Bell can keep us from using its wifi for porn or indeed any streaming at all (ask me how I know!) it doesn't seem impossible for NYC? A really simple technique would be to just run everything through a service like "OpenDNS Family Shield". Perhaps eventually someone would complain that e.g. breastfeeding videos were blocked, but that seems like a smaller problem than public masturbation.
- Dowwie 10y agoWhat else will they give the public in exchange for surveilling it 24x7? These kiosks are surveillance machines.
- 10y ago
- robk 10y agoAnecdotal but a friend swore he saw a person watching porn and publicly masturbating at one of these kiosks.
- Pica_soO 10y agoIf you are out of luck, you are supposed to be out of - fun? Where is a homeless person then supposed to masturbate/defecate and wait, if not in public? At his home? Oh, he has no home. Well then, i interpret the author words as a statement that, s/he/it should just accept that they are out of luck and vanish, like Homeless in any or-well-organized state do? If only we had a state that placed the welfare of the community, over the welfare of self-deprecating individuals, then we could all be fascists, happily ever after.
- JustUhThought 10y agoLots of [dead] comments on this thread. Either, moderators are prudes or they haven't lived in NYC. I once, first hand, saw a homeless woman change her tampon in a crowded subway car. That happened. In real life. If you've never lived in NYC, don't judge; you don't know.
- JustUhThought 10y ago"..people masturbating in public." Just another glorious day in the Big Apple.