Amusement Park Bans PDAs and Smartphones

Ant writes in with news that an amusement park in the UK is trying out a ban on smartphones and PDAs, with the intent to enable families actually to have fun together. The press release says that from May 25 to June 1, adults found using a PDA will be asked to drop it off at a "PDA Drop Off Zone" — no word on what happens if they refuse. But both the Sun and BoingBoing, which picked up their brief story, strike a more ominous note with the claim that "special wardens" will confiscate the devices. If the experiment is deemed a success the park may make the ban permanent.

Re:Oh Please...

[Concerned Onlooker]

Perhaps I should have expanded. Having a policy is fine. I have accidentally run afoul of a no cell phones policy at a country club. However, the difference is that I was asked to not use the phone rather than having someone take it away from me.

Re:Oh Please...

[HeavensBlade23]

Having a 'policy' doesn't allow you to confiscate someone's personal property. They always have the option of declining to abide by the rules and leave the premises.

Re:Thuggery?

[DavidWeight]

On that note, using the phone while driving is banned in the UK.....

Re:This is a great idea!

[nbannerman]

Whoa, hang on a minute.

A few things to think about;

1. England != UK. Confusing the two is bad form; our Scots and Welsh brethren will surely kick up a stink at that. 2. Alton Towers are free to trial this. The fact they are trialling it first is a good way to go about things. 3. We use the Pound (Sterling) as our currency - you'll prise it from my euro-sceptic-dead-hands.

Considering the pasting that Labour are getting in the papers and at the polling booths, I'd say us 'British Subjects' are still quite capable of fighting back, in the more general sense of the political climate here at the moment.

Re:Oh Please...

[dotancohen]

Ahh.. policy.. The bureaucratic form of "I was only following orders"

I agree - Nazi germany [wikipedia.org] was the first thing I thought of when I heard about people not being allowed to use their PDAs.

I will give you a better analogy. The local US embassy confiscates cellphones. Apparently there is a sign at the door that you can leave the phone at a drop-off point across the street for the equivalent of $3 US. My wife who went to the embassy to pick up some papers had to leave her place in line (after over an hour in line outside the building) and hide her phone in the bushes because she didn't have the cash on her.

Don't forget, it's The Sun

[Gordonjcp]

For those outside the UK, it's probably worth pointing out that The Sun is a fanatically right-wing paper written for a reading age of [dooyoo.co.uk] approximately 9 years [wikipedia.org]. Most prominent in The Sun are the "Page Three Stunna" (a different picture of a topless woman every day), a large sports section, and a large comics section. Fairly typical Sun headlines are "Do Fellas Prefer Flirtier Females?", "Driven to suicide by websites", and "Immigrant got me pregnant at 14". These are *real* headlines from The Sun, I'm not making this up. Ok, they're not quite at the level of batshit crazyness of some USian tabloids (National Enquirer, I'm looking at you here), but they have printed their fair share of "I got pregnant by a space mushroom"-type stuff.

Re:Oh Please...

[KutuluWare]

What. The. Fuck. "There is now law that says you must be allowed..." What the hell is that? Since when were activites implicitly blacklisted and then only allowed once added to a whitelist?

Since the beginning of human history, or thereabourts. You may have heard of this concept, it's called "private property", and you aren't even allowed to enter my private property until I give you permission to do so.

You seem to be very vocally confused about exactly what's going on here, so perhaps a bulleted list will be of some assistance:

* This is the United Kingdom, not the US, so the Constitution means fuck-all to anyone involved.

* Even if this were the United States, you'd still be horribly wrong. With very very few exceptions, nothing in the Constitution has any jurisdiction over private organizations. I direct you to the first words of the First Amendment as an example: Congress shall enact no law...

* Finally, the Constitution doesn't even remotely say what you claim it says. The confusion you seem to be having is over the Tenth Amendment. It says that any "power" (power to make laws) not expressly given to the Federal Government, is automatically given to the states. It says absolutely nothing about whatever laws the states may or may not have that aren't written in the Constitution.

That's just for starters, so perhaps you should take a political science course or two before your next ill-informed /. rant.

This is crap!!

[Anonymous Coward]

I go with my kids and Six Flags several times a month (via season pass) and we have a great time; even with my smartphone in hard. We use our phones to stay in touch with each other in case someone wants to ride different rides so that we can find each other again. What I don't need is some amusement park telling me how to enjoy my "family time"!!!