Hyatt Hotels Next Chain to Block Porn From In-Room Entertainment
A major hotel chain has announced that they will be phasing out on-demand pornographic films from their available in-room entertainment.
Hyatt Hotel Corp. released a statement on Wednesday noting that "in-room programming choices are just one part of the guest experience Hyatt is constantly evaluating."
"As part of that process, Hyatt has made the decision to stop offering adult entertainment video on-demand at any Hyatt hotel," the statement continued.
The anti-pornography group the National Center on Sexual Exploitation applauded the corporation's decision to remove the graphic content from their rooms.
Haley Halverson, communication director for NCOSE, told The Christian Post that the organization had recently contacted Hyatt about the dangers of pornographic usage.
"Pornography use is tied to increased sexual violence and increased child abuse, along with lifelong addictions that have a detrimental neurological effect," said Halverson.
"After hearing NCOSE's concerns, Hyatt let us know that they were rethinking their policy regarding on-demand pornography, and then shortly they informed us that they have now opted to remove these videos from their guest rooms globally."
Hyatt is not the first major hotel chain in recent months to opt to discontinue offering pornographic entertainment in their guest rooms.
In August, Hilton Worldwide announced that they were phasing out pornography from the hotels they owned which offered such content.
"While the vast majority of our properties already do not offer this content today, this content will be phased out of all other hotels subject to the terms of their contracts," stated Hilton.
"We believe in offering our guests a high degree of choice and control during their stays with us, including Wi-Fi on personal devices. However, we have listened carefully to our customers and have determined that adult video-on-demand entertainment is not in keeping with our company's vision and goals moving forward."
Halverson of NCOSE told CP that she believed "there is a cultural shift in progress regarding the issue of pornography."
"Hilton Worldwide was placed on NCOSE's Dirty Dozen list for distributing on-demand pornographic videos, and they chose to change policies in August of this year to no longer facilitate sexual exploitation," continued Halverson.
"Hyatt's decision to remove pornographic movies, even before being placed on our Dirty Dozen list, is just one more domino falling toward a new normal where it is the default for hotels to not sell porn, and to instead take an active stand against sexual exploitation."