America
New York museums officially ban selfie sticks
New York, Feb 9
Can your selfie obsession
cause public nuisance and damage to precious property? Yes, feel many
museums and other organisations and hence they have banned use of selfie
sticks in their premises.
The prevalence of the device has led New York City museums and others to ban the use of selfie sticks, according to reports.
The
Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, is one of the first in NYC to
officially ban the stick, although it's technically always been
restricted.
"It has long been a policy that visitors may only use
handheld devices to take photos, without any camera extension devices.
We have simply added selfie-sticks to this policy, which is in place to
ensure the safety of our visitors and the Museum's works of art," a
representative from the museum was reported as saying by The Observer.
Other
museums have either already banned the sticks or are seriously
considering it. Guggenheim and The Frick no longer allow them while the
Met hasn't yet reached a decision.
The reason for the restriction
is the threat of accidental damage to museum exhibits and artwork, like
potentially tearing through a rare Picasso painting. Stopping to
position for a selfie can also lead to congestion in already crowded
museums.
That means museum-goers will no longer be able to show
off to the world how cool and artsy they are for hitting up the MoMA on a
weekend.