Mon 10 Jan 2011 In: New Zealand Daily News View at Wayback View at NDHA
McDonald's says it will review WiFi access to a number of gay news and support websites, if it's asked to. The fast food chain offers free WiFi access in 132 of its restaurants nationwide. Sites including GayNZ.com, Rainbow Youth, Agender and Bro Online can't be accessed at some outlets, as they are blocked by the content filtering technology of provider TelstraClear. McDonald's says it's a family restaurant chain, and as part of offering the new Free WiFi service, its policy is that viewed content must be of a family friendly nature, i.e.- suitable for a child to view. "Because of this, access to a number of websites is blocked, including access to GayNZ.com gambling, tobacco and adult mature content websites," a spokeswoman says. "We stress that all the content of allowable sites must meet family friendly criteria. By this we mean a child cannot access a website where they can click on any content, link or third party advertisement and access sexually explicit content and images. "You will also appreciate that there are inevitably teething problems with the introduction of a new service and getting our filtering process right is one such issue. McDonalds says to address any teething problems it's absolutely happy to review websites on a case by case basis, if customers believe that sites have been unjustifiably blocked. "We'd be very happy therefore to review GayNZ.com and other sites ... should you or other customers ask us to reconsider the current access arrangement." GayNZ.com will ask McDonald's to reconsider access. The New Zealand AIDS Foundation is aware access to its site Bro Online has been blocked at some restaurants and is looking into it, as is Rainbow Youth.