Channel 7 has issued an apology to rugby league star Jarryd Hayne after the pornography mishap during a Norton online security demonstration at a Gold Coast school last week.
During a demonstration about the dangers of an open network, Hayne’s phone was being used to show how easy it is to snoop whatever he has been looking at on his phone.
Seconds later, another device joined the network and images from a porn site were displayed on the screen in front of students from Robina State High School.
Yahoo!7, Channel 7’s online identity, published a story with the headline “Awkward! Jarryd Hayne red-faced after porn shown to 200 school students” which suggested the images may have come from Hayne’s phone.
Norton’s security expert Nick Savvides, who was on stage with Hayne during the incident, spoke to the gathered press (which included Tech Guide) and categorically denied the images had originated from the league star’s iPhone.
Savvides later revealed the device that joined the open network had been a Samsung phone.
Yesterday Yahoo!7 offered an apology to Hayne after incorrectly implying the offending porn images might have come from his phone.
Here is what Yahoo!7 published under the headline: Jarryd Hayne apology.
“On 7 November 2016 we published a story “Awkward! Jarryd Hayne red-faced after porn shown to 200 school students” which may have suggested that the pornographic images which appeared on screen at Robina State High School came from Jarryd Hayne’s phone.
“Yahoo!7 accepts that this was not the case and the article was updated to clarify that the Norton IT expert involved in the presentation has advised that the source was definitely not Mr Hayne’s phone.
“Yahoo!7 apologises to Jarryd Hayne for any hurt or embarrassment caused by the original version of the article.”
The incorrect assumptions that the porn images were from Jarryd Hayne’s phone were trending on Twitter less than an hour after the incident which took place at about 11.30am on Monday, November 7.
Hayne, a devout Christian and Norton online security ambassador, has not offered any further comments on the incident.