March 17, 2015
AFA Partners with EIE and 70+ Organizations to Send 46,500-Signature Petition to McDonald's and Starbucks
***NEWS RELEASE***
For Immediate Release
March 17, 2015
CONTACT:
Deborah Hamilton, Hamilton Strategies, 215.815.7716, 610.584.1096 or Beth Harrison, 610.584.1096, Media@HamiltonStrategies.com
AFA Partners with Enough Is Enough® and 70+ Organizations to Send 46,500-Signature Petition to McDonald’s and Starbucks
AFA Joins with EIE to Urge Industry Leaders and
Family-Friendly Restaurants to Offer Safe Wi-Fi Zones
TUPELO, Miss.—Seventy-five organizations, including American Family Association (AFA, www.afa.net), have partnered with the Internet safety group Enough Is Enough®® (EIE) for its National P*rn Free Campaign to work toward Internet safety, anti-trafficking, anti-p*rnography and child sex abuse prevention.
This week, EIE delivered petitions with 46,500 signatures to the CEOs of Starbucks and McDonalds, urging them as industry leaders to filter their open Wi-Fi hotspots so sexual predators cannot freely browse the Internet for unsuitable and p*rnographic material where families interact and dine.
“American Family Association has been fighting the battle against p*rnography for 38 years,” said AFA President Tim Wildmon. “We are proud to join our friends at Enough Is Enough® as well as the other partners in this critical mission. And to keep the Internet safe for children and families, we are encouraging our AFA friends and supporters to let McDonald’s and Starbucks know that we will not rest in this effort.”
The online petition, which was sent to McDonald’s and Starbucks, along with the “P*rn Free Wi-Fi℠,” campaign, found online at www.friendlywifi.org, is an initiative to encourage corporate America to join the fight to prevent the Internet-initiated sexual exploitation of children, specifically requesting McDonald’s and Starbucks to lead the way in this fight by implementing p*rnography filters in their more than 25,000 combined restaurants in the U.S., as they do already in their U.K. stores. AFA had previously sent an Action Alert to its one million-plus friends and supporters to inform them of the effort.
EIE President Donna Rice Hughes stated, “It’s time Starbucks and McDonald’s filter their public WiFi services and not just their coffee. These two corporate giants understand the importance of protecting children online since they led the way to pro-actively filter their WiFi services in the United Kingdom under an industry-wide self-regulation initiative. Now, millions of Americans have joined us in requesting that these companies offer American children the same level of protection as they do for children overseas. We believe that as industry leaders who set standards for other companies, McDonald’s and Starbucks have a unique opportunity to lead corporate America to be part of the solution by offering safe “p*rn free WiFi” environments and to take a stand against Internet p*rnography that is damaging children.”
Both McDonald’s and Starbucks already pro-actively filters p*rnography and child p*rnography from its public Wi-Fi services in the United Kingdom.
Filtering Internet content at restaurant hot spots is not unprecedented in the U.S., EIE says. Some companies, such as Chick-fil-A and Panera Bread, do filter p*rnography, child p*rnography and other inappropriate content on their Wi-Fi networks to protect children and other patrons.
The text of the petition is as follows:
Whereas: Federal officials warn that open Wi-Fi hotspots—like those at McDonald’s and Starbucks—create criminal safe havens for sexual predators to operate with anonymity;
Whereas: Open Wi-Fi hotspots—like those at McDonald’s and Starbucks—are attracting pedophiles and sex offenders to family-friendly locations frequented by children;
Whereas: Open Wi-Fi hotspots—like those at McDonalds and Starbuck’s—are being used to access p*rnography and child p*rnography in the plain view of the general public including minor children;
Whereas: Both McDonald’s and Starbucks have already implemented filtering to filter access to p*rnography and child p*rnography, thereby establishing a “Friendly Wi-Fi” environment, at all of their locations in the U.K.
Whereas: McDonald’s and Starbucks both recognize their role as industry leaders who set the standards for other companies and have a unique opportunity to lead the way for other public Wi-Fi services to follow; and
Whereas: We ALL must work together to protect children from Internet p*rnography, child p*rnography and sexual predators when logged into public Wi-Fi services offered in cafes, restaurants, hotels, shopping malls, airports and theme parks across the U.S.
Therefore: I urge McDonald’s and Starbucks to exercise their corporate responsibility as industry leaders to confront these serious problems by establishing a safe “P*rn-Free Wi-Fi” environment in all of your U.S. locations.
American Family Association offers its friends and supporters several mobile apps through http://www.afa.net/resources/mobile-apps/. The AFA Action Alerts app, with breaking news and action alerts, is available for the iPhone and iPad on the Apple App Store, on Google Play and on the Amazon Appstore for Android. The AFR (American Family Radio) app is available for Apple and Android products, and the AFA Action app with, for example, voter information at election time, is available on Apple and Android platforms.
For more information on American Family Association, visit www.afa.net
To interview a representative from American Family Association, contact Deborah Hamilton at 215-815-7716 or 610-584-1096, or Beth Harrison at 610-584-1096, Media@HamiltonStrategies.com.
American Family Association (AFA) a non-profit 501(c3) organization was founded in 1977 by Donald E. Wildmon. Since then, AFA has been on the frontlines of America’s culture war. The original name of the ministry was National Federation for Decency but was changed to American Family Association in 1988. Today, AFA is one of the largest and most effective pro-family organizations in the country with nearly a million online supporters and approximately 160,000 subscribers to the AFA Journal, the ministry’s monthly magazine. In addition, AFA owns and operates nearly 200 radio stations across the country under the American Family Radio banner.
Other divisions of AFA include American Family Radio, the AFA Foundation and OneNewsNow.com, an online news provider syndicated around the world. AFA maintains activist websites such as OneMillionMoms.com, which rallies Christian activists to contact companies asking them to drop their advertising from objectionable TV shows, and OneMillionDads.com, which equips men to fulfill their God-given role of leadership. AFA websites average over 6 million unique visitors and 30 million hits per year. AFA uses all these means to communicate an outspoken, resolute, Christian voice throughout America.
Sources:
· http://internetsafety101.org/news.htm?id=226
Suggested Facebook Post:
Petitions with 46,500 signatures delivered to McDonald’s and Starbucks, urging these industry leaders to offer safe Wi-Fi hotspots in its U.S. locations. AFA is joining the effort with the Internet safety group Enough Is Enough®.
Suggested Twitter Post:
AFA is helping tell McDonald’s and Starbucks to keep their Wi-Fi hotspots safe for kids and families.