HOTELS SCORN PORN
Nix on-demand flix
It’s getting a lot harder for Americans to get their hands on pornography.
Corporate America and municipalities, under pressure from advocacy groups, are making it harder for folks to access XXX content outside the home.
In the latest battle, the Hilton Houston Southwest in the Galleria area rejected adult content when it canceled the Texxxas adult expo scheduled for Aug. 17-20.
The expo, which was slated to feature the usual lineup of adult film stars and merchandise, caught the attention of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, which pressured the hotel to back out of the deal.
Organizers maintained the event is totally PG.
Didn’t matter. The Hilton, locally owned, said ta-ta to Texxxas.
It’s not the NCOSE’s first tango with porn providers.
The nonprofit group in the last year successfully lobbied four major hotel chains — Hilton, Starwood, InterContinental and Hyatt — to get rid of porn-on-demand in their rooms.
“The event had the potential to facilitate an increased demand for prostitution and sex trafficking in the local area,” NCOSE Executive Di- rector Dawn Hawkins said in a statement.
The Texxxas cancellation comes on the heels of McDonald’s and Starbucks announcing plans to filter porn from their free in-store WiFi service.
The move by the two chains came after another anti-porn nonprofit, Enough is Enough, pushed them to act.
In addition, New York City implemented a filter at 180 free WiFi hotspots while the Dallas City Council voted in February to ban another adult expo called Exxxotica from returning to the cityowned downtown convention center.
An NCOSE spokeswoman said it is focusing its efforts next on Verizon, which has dedicated pornography channels.
“We are working to create an overall movement,” said the spokeswoman, adding that Hilton eventually bowed to vanquishing on-demand videos after it received 1,000 e-mails a week from NCOSE supporters.
Texxxas organizer John Gray said he already found another location for his event — but he’s not saying where.
The Houston hotel did not immediately return calls for comment.