RECENTLY I visited an entertainment centre and arcade to see a friend. As usual, the place was packed with adults and children alike. My friends had to wait their turn before they could play on one of the machines so we decided to walk around to see what the place had to offer. We went down to the arcade, spent a few minutes there and headed back upstairs. As we were going through the lounge something on the television playing in the area caught my eye. Initially, I thought it was a music video to the song by Shakira (which was playing on the sound system). I continued to watch because it seemed a little risqué for a music video. On the screen there was a love scene playing out with a naked couple. The woman was kissing the man’s chest and continued to move downwards, and the action continued to show the man returning the favour. At this point we realised that what we were seeing was a fully blown (no pun intended) pornographic movie. I stood there stunned. There was a couple sitting in front of the television watching this and a group of young adults also sitting in there as well watching. At this point an employee came down the stairs and I pointed this out to her. She promptly went over to the television and tried to change the channel or turn off the TV (I’m not sure which). I decided that there was no way that I could leave the situation alone and not do something about it, so I went upstairs to speak to the manager. I was directed to him and I explained to him (trying to keep my cool) that I’d just viewed a porn movie showing on the TV in the lounge area downstairs. With a smile on his face he explained that they subscribed to cable television from the United States and could not control what aired. I exclaimed that there were kids downstairs and adults watching this and there are parental controls to prevent this kind of thing from happening. He continued to smile and made no attempt to have the situation rectified or investigate right away.What made me even more enraged was that the man had a smile on his face throughout our entire conversation, and I pointed this out to him. His defence was that there was no way that he could predict that the network would be showing a movie of that nature at 10 o’clock at night.There is something seriously wrong with this. First of all, that this happened in a family-oriented establishment. The place was full of people, families, teenagers, children. I don’t have children myself, but I have nephews and godchildren; my co-workers allow their children to go there with their friends, not expecting that they would be exposed to something of this nature there. Secondly, that the adults in that room seemed to find nothing wrong with that scenario and found my reaction amusing. What are we coming to when adults are comfortable viewing material of that nature in a room full of people including children and find this amusing? And when our children display certain behaviours we are quick to cry them down and say we don’t know how they turned out this way. Have we gotten so desensitised that a situation like this is viewed as commonplace?Thirdly, the manager’s nonchalance when I brought this to his attention. There was no apology, no attempt to investigate; he claimed he had no control over the situation; he was slow to act and found the situation amusing. Furthermore, since he claimed that this was beyond his control, how can I, or anyone else for that matter, be assured that this situation or something of a similar nature will not occur in the future? I understand that these things can happen on certain channels on US cable networks. I experienced it myself a few years back when I was visiting a friend in the US and I fell asleep in front of the TV and woke up about one hour later to hear moans and groans coming from the TV. What I do not understand and cannot accept is that steps were not taken to ensure that something like this would not occur in a business that caters to families and children.I still find this entire situation unbelievable. I woke up still angry about the entire thing. I called the owner and to her credit, she expressed shock and apologised profusely. A situation like this is unacceptable and I pray that it will not reoccur.
