They’re called “selfie sticks” long extendible poles you can attach your mobile phone or camera to and which extend much further than arm’s length in order to take wider photo shots or group photos or to get closer to a subject you can’t otherwise reach.
Today, the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg Manitoba has announced it’s banning them.
The museum says its due to concerns for safety of other visitors and the exhibits.
Maureen Fitzhenry, a museum spokeswoman, says in addition to concern about the devices posing an obstacle to other visitors, it’s also with regard to maintaining a respectful environment, given the content of some of the exhibits.
She says the museum still allows selfies and hand held cameras, but no flashes and no tripods, and now, no selfie-sticks.
In announcing the ban, the Canadian Musuem for Human Rights joins the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art which banned selfie sticks in February also over conern of possible damage to art works, disrupting visitors, and the potential of people putting themselves in risky situations by leaning over balconies, or at the tops of stairs.
The New York Museum of Modern Art, National Gallery of Art in Washington, and Museum of Fine Art in Houston have also banned selfie sticks, as does the National Gallery in London, England. Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, the Guggenheim, the Smithsonian, and in Australia. the National Gallery of Victoria, the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra and the National Portrait Gallery have all banned the photo extension aids
In addition they’ve been banned in a number of European soccer stadiums, where the concern is of a rather different nature, that of rowdy fans possibly using the sticks to attack each other.
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