New York was the first major city in the United States to prohibit driving while talking on a cell phone. Now a city councilman wants cell phones banned in public places throughout the city, including libraries, movie theaters and museums.
In a move lambasted by the cellular phone industry, Councilman Philip Reed introduced legislation that prohibits the use of cell phones in "any place to which the public is invited or permitted and where members of the public assemble to witness cultural, recreational or educational activities."
While the bill makes an exception for emergency calls, it punishes anyone who infringes on the rule with a $50 fine.
"New Yorkers are sick and tired of people on their cell phones in the middle of a play or a movie," Reed said. "It's distracting, it's annoying, and as a public nuisance, it should be against the law."
While members of the cell-phone industry discourage its customers from using a mobile phone in, for example, the movie theater, it is vehemently against such legislation for safety reasons.
"We're going to have policemen come into a theater and take the phone away from a mother speaking with her child's babysitter?" asked Kim Kuo, spokeswoman for the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association. "That's ridiculous."
Kuo said that educating the public on cell-phone etiquette was needed, but "it's silly trying to legislate common sense."
Reed, however, said that movie theaters and other public places are already asking patrons to shut off their cell phones to no avail.
"Apparently, the requests of theater management and the disapproval of the rest of the audience is not enough for some people to quit their gabbing," Reed said. "You have to legislate so they'll put it on vibrate."
The council will vote on Reed's bill next week.
