Popular tourist attractions are beginning to ban selfie sticks

The ‘selfie stick’, a pole that holds a smartphone or camera on one end for the purpose of photographing its user from a distance, is being banned from use by a growing list of popular tourist attractions.

Defenders of the stick say they’re useful in improving snapshots, but critics argue they’re not only obnoxious, these three-to-four-foot poles are also dangerous. As such, officials at the Palace of Versailles and Britain’s National Gallery announced on Wednesday that selfie sticks will no longer be allowed on the grounds of either location. 

In the announcement, officials for the two locations said the ban was necessary in order to protect artworks and visitors alike. 

Other places that have banned, or otherwise put limits on this technology accessory:

France
The Musee d’Orsay has a standing ban against selfie sticks. It should be noted, though, that the popular tourist attraction for impressionist art also bans photography as a whole. 

The Pompidou is studying how to go about banning the sticks at the moment. The Louvre and Centre Georges Pompidou art museums still allow selfie sticks to be used (for now). 

Britain
Along with the National Gallery, several of the country’s professional soccer teams have forbidden the use of selfie sticks on stadium grounds.

Italy
The Colosseum in Rome banned selfie sticks last month, citing it as a security issue, both for the objects inside the 2,000-year-old monument as well as the thousands of visitors who tour its grounds. “The twirling around of hundreds of sticks can become unwittingly dangerous,” Colosseum spokesman Christiano Brughitta said.

United States
Washington DC’s Smithsonian Museum banned the selfie stick last week. Cameras and smartphones are still allowed to record pictures on the grounds, but the use of selfie sticks, tripods, and monopods are forbidden.

Other American-based institutions that have similar bans: The Art Institute of Chicago, the Detroit Institute of Arts, as well as New York’s Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Via Phys.org