Northern ask travellers not to view adult content on trains

[ChewChewTrain]

I think streaming services were once blocked entirely but now they can simply deliver a lower quality bitstream. I guess that's down to each TOC, but many will encourage people to access content stored locally on the train (something IC operators do, not your suburban commuter services).

Would appreciate you elaborating on that last bit. What is stored, and how is its access encouraged? (I’m not doubting you; I’m just curious.)

 

[jon0844]

Many planes and trains hold a selection of media that users connected to the onboard Wi-Fi network can stream. When you first connect to the SSID and get the pop up to connect, you'll be told of this and other services (like at seat ordering, or details of the train you're on etc). Safesearch will also be part of this, which you cannot override without using a VPN.

 

[Turtle]

There's a meme knocking around on various universities' headed letter paper instructing students not to, er, enjoy themselves in the lavatories as it blocks the pipes (or some such). They're all fake but they've been done for all manner of universities.

There's also the fake P&O Ferries one instructing people not to use the toilets for cottaging, with a rather amusing French translation.

I'll not link either here but it doesn't take long with Google to find them.

Most enlightening.

 

[thaitransit]

This reminds me of two incidents that I have witnessed on trains.

Once on a sprinter DMU on a Melbourne to Melton service. A guy decided to "make himself happy" on the train the clean up using a headrest cover! Yuk!

The other incident was on KTMB commuter train during the evening peak heading out of K.L sentral to Port Klang. There were two guys "going at it" on the longitudinal seats just inside the doors in full view of a packed train of standing passengers! They were more than brave and bold. Malaysia has anti gay laws too!

 

[Tetchytyke]

Would appreciate you elaborating on that last bit. What is stored, and how is its access encouraged? (I’m not doubting you; I’m just curious.)

They’ve faded away somewhat, but most intercity operators had their own entertainment services which were effectively on an intranet within the train, similar to the IFE systems on aircraft (except you accessed it through your own device). You accessed through the Wi-Fi as normal, but as the data was held on the train it wasn’t affected by the train having an external internet connection.

I believe LNER are trialling something similar with ITV Hub programming.

 

[Egg Centric]

Yes they do, many people find it relaxing to watch after a stressful day at work. Always on mute or wearing headphones mind, although plenty do simply rather watch porn than catch up on YouTube or a film on Netflix etc

Have you any evidence for the bolded word? It clearly happens but it seems intrinsically unlikely to me that many people do this. Partly because "relaxing" is not a word that immediately comes to mind when thinking about porn...

 

[43066]

Have you any evidence for the bolded word? It clearly happens but it seems intrinsically unlikely to me that many people do this. Partly because "relaxing" is not a word that immediately comes to mind when thinking about porn...

Agreed. What has been described strikes me as a “niche” activity, to say the very least !

 

[Starmill]

I think you're talking about Google safesearch, which isn't a filter set at network level. If you access Google on an O2 hotspot (and likely many others) you'll notice that safesearch is enabled and you can't turn it off (bar using a VPN).

In any case, that's irrelevant to my point which is the block is on by default and you either ask for it to be removed, and have to prove you're over 18, or the sales operative does it because you are clearly over 18.

I'm certain that all Icomera based onboard Wi-Fi also filters content and forces safesearch - as well as blocking many file sharing services (including Google Drive).

I think streaming services were once blocked entirely but now they can simply deliver a lower quality bitstream. I guess that's down to each TOC, but many will encourage people to access content stored locally on the train (something IC operators do, not your suburban commuter services).

Some even block the Spotify app, which is a surprise really because how little data the audio only uses through the app means that the majority of train-borne wifi can cope with it absolutely fine.

 

[185]

I'm trying to imagine Northern sticking yet another announcement for this to go with their other 11000 announcements.

"Northern would like to remind customers that smoking, vaping and.. err.."