Berlin school bans Wi-fi hub over porno fears

“The suggestion was on the table that one of the Wi-fi hotspots be put on the building,” said Dagmar König, a local politician, referring to a proposal to put one of a transceiver on the Paula-Fürst School in Charlottenburg.

“But school authorities were concerned that under-age children would use the uncontrolled internet access to surf porno sites on their smart phones.”

The Berlin senate plans to install  650 Wi-fi hotspots across the capital city to provide Berliners with free access throughout the city, reports BZ.

The proposed hotspot on the Paula-Fürst school would have been one link in this network.

But school authorities claimed it would have contravened their responsibility to protect the children.

Teachers would have had to collect mobile telephones from the 600 pupils at the school every morning to ensure that they wouldn't access illicit sites during the day – something “neither doable nor desirable” said König.

But the school doesn't seem to have a problem with the hotspot being positioned on a neighbouring building, despite it having a signal which stretches 250 metres.

“That wouldn't have anything to do with us,” said König, adding that parents would then have to make sure their children's phones were blocked from visiting sex sites.

There are in fact a further two hotspots planned for the area, one at Ernst-Reuter-Platz, the other in the Charlottenburg town hall.