Skip to footer

Why Disney is banning selfie-sticks from its theme parks

Disney is discouraging use of the selfie stick in its theme parks on the grounds that it could be dangerous to other visitors.  

|
Yiannis Kourtoglou/Reuters
Tourists pose for a picture using a selfie stick.
  • By Beatrice Gitau Staff writer

Disney has officially banned the selfie stick inside its theme parks, joining a growing number of global tourist attractions to take the measure. 

Disney officials announced Friday that guests will not be permitted to bring selfie sticks into any of the Walt Disney World theme parks due to safety concerns.

“We strive to provide a great experience for the entire family, and unfortunately selfie sticks have become a growing safety concern for both our guests and cast,” Disney spokeswoman Kim Prunty told the Orlando Sentinel.

The Sentinel reported that the new policy goes into effect June 30, at both Walt Disney World in Florida and Disneyland Resort in California. The ban begins on July 1 at Disney parks in Paris and Hong Kong.

Visitors will check their selfie sticks at the front gate and pick up their item when leaving the park, but signs in the parking lots will encourage them to leave the sticks in their cars.

Other items prohibited in Disney World include skateboards, wagons, folding chairs, shoes with build-in wheels, suitcases, and glass containers, according to its official website, which also lists “other items that we determine may be harmful or disruptive.”

According to reports this week, a roller coaster at the Disney California Adventure Park was temporary halted after a passenger hazardously pulled out a selfie stick while riding.

The sticks have been banned at a growing list of places. In March, the Smithsonian museums told visitors to leave them at home, calling it a “preventive measure to protect visitors and objects, especially during crowded conditions”

The tools are used to improve smartphone camera snapshots, but critics say they obstruct views and can be potentially dangerous. Other places that have put limits on the selfie sticks include New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Coachella music festival, London's National Gallery, and English Premier League soccer stadiums.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Why Disney is banning selfie-sticks from its theme parks
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/USA-Update/2015/0626/Why-Disney-is-banning-selfie-sticks-from-its-theme-parks
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe