a shopping mall, department store, or railway station. the reason for charging money is usually for the maintenance of the equipment. paying to use a toilet can be traced back almost 2000 years, to the first century ad. the payment may be taken by a bathroom attendant, or by a coin-operated turnstile or cubicle door (see john nevil maskelyne, who invented a doorlock requiring the insertion of a penny coin, hence the euphemism to "spend a penny".) the first pay toilet in the united states was installed in 1910 in terre haute, indiana. privatization and closures main article: privatization of public toilets in some places, the provision of public toilet facilities is under great pressure. one response by public authorities is to close the buildings, often citing criminal activity. the united kingdom government austerity programme has led to major council cut-backs to public toilet provision, with knock-on effects on the public realm as a whole. some of the buildings, particularly the underground ones, are sold and used for other purposes, e.g. as a bar. another response is to privatise the toilets, so that a public good is provided by a contractor, just as private prisons are. the toilets may fall under the category of privately owned public space - anyone can use them, but the land ultimately belongs to the corporation in question. when toilets that have been privatised are improperly run, or closed, there may be calls to take them back into the control of the public authority. society and culture unisex (gender neutral) main article: unisex public toilet gender neutral toilet sign at department of sociology, gothenburg university, gothenburg, swedenpublic toilets are often separated by sex. in many cultures, this separation is so characteristic that pictograms of a man or a woman often suffice to indicate the facility, without explicit reference to the fixtures themselves. in restaurants and other private locations, the identifications can be designed to match the decoration of the premises. toilet facilities for people with disabilities, especially those reliant on a wheelchair, may be either gender-specific or unisex. gender-neutral toilets are usual in cases where sex-separated ones are not practical, such as in aircraft lavatories and passenger train toilets. in the 21st century, with lobbying from the transgender rights movement, some initiatives have called for gender-neutral public toilets, also called unisex public toilets (also called gender-inclusive, or all-gender). these may be instead of, or in addition to, gendered toilets, depending on the circumstances. many groups are re-imagining what public toilets can look like; for instance, architect joel sanders, transgender historian susan stryker, and legal scholar terry kogan launched stalled!, an open source website which offers lectures, workshops, and design guidelines for unisex public toilets. in addition to accommodating transgender and gender non-conforming individuals, gender-neutral public toilets facilitate usage for people who may require assistance from a caretaker of another gender, such as people with disabilities, elderly people, and children. an additional consideration with regard to gendered public restrooms is the availability of baby changing tables. sometimes, these tables have only been installed in women's restrooms, owing to stereotypical assumptions that only women were likely to be accompanied by babies needing to have their diapers changed. this can be an impediment for fathers with their children and other male caregivers. advocates have worked for changing tables to be installed in men's restrooms. unisex washrooms would provide access to either regardless. graffiti and street art graffiti at a toilet in bat yam, israel. the hundertwasser toilets, seen as a tourist attraction in their own right public toilets have long been associated with graffiti, often of a transgressive, gossipy, or low-brow humorous nature (cf. toilet humour). the word latrinalia—from latrine (toilet) and -alia (a collection)—was coined to describe this kind of graffiti. a famous example of such artwork was featured on the album cover of the satirical tony award broadway musical urinetown, using felt-tip pen scribblings. as graffiti merged into street art, so some public street-level toilets began to make a feature of their visibility. the hundertwasser toilet block is a colourful example in kawakawa, new zealand, designed by an austrian artist and viewed as a tourist draw in a small town. drugs, vandalism and violent crime anti-heroin use public toilet in the u.s. this toilet for supermarket customers uses very dim, blue lighting to deter heroin users from injecting. the blue gloom makes veins impossible to see. some public toilets are known for drug-taking and drug-selling, as well as vandalism. this type of criminal activity is associated with all "neglected, unsupervised buildings", not just toilets, and good cleanliness and maintenance, and ideally an attendant on the premises, can act as a protection against these problems. violent crime inside public toilets can be a problem in areas where the rate of such crimes in general is very high. in south africa, for instance, many people have reported being afraid to use public toilets. there have been several highly publicized murders in public toilets, such as the seocho-dong public toilet murder case in south korea in 2016. in the us, an infamous case was the murder of a 9-year-old boy in 1998 in a san diego county public toilet. increasing public toilet provision can help to protect women from violent attacks. research studies have found increased risk of women and girls being raped where there is limited or no access to safe toilets at night. several billion people lack access to improved water and sanitation and must travel long distances or wait until night time to defecate under cover of darkness. women and girls manage menstruation which increases their water and sanitation requirements for several days each month. amongst the un sustainable development goals there is a specific references to achieving access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all paying special attention to the needs of women and girls in vulnerable situations (indicator 6.2). a study conducted by the ucla school of law's williams institute found no significant change in the number of crimes since the passage of various laws that enable transgender public toilet usage. transgender and gender non-conforming people are at risk of violence when using the public toilet (see: trans bashing). a 2015 study by the national center for transgender equality found that 59% of transgender american avoided using public facilities for fear of confrontation. this landmark study, which included 27,715 respondents, found that 24% of respondents had their presence in the restroom questioned, 12% had experienced verbal harassment, physical assault, or sexual assault when attempting to use the restroom, and 9% were denied access entirely. several studies have found that preventing transgender people from using public toilets has negative mental health impacts, leading to a higher risk of suicide. anonymous sex before the gay liberation movement, public toilets were amongst the few places where men too young to enter gay bars legally could meet others who they knew with certainty to be gay. many, if not most, gay and bisexual men at the time were closeted, and almost no public gay social groups were available for those under legal drinking age. the privacy and anonymity public toilets provided made them a convenient and attractive location to engage in sexual acts then. sexual acts in public toilets are outlawed in many jurisdictions (e.g. the sexual offences act 2003 in the uk). it is likely that the element of risk involved in cottaging makes it an attractive activity to some. symbols in unicode unicode provides several symbols for public toilets. symbolcodenamevalueimage 🚹 u+1f6b9mens symbolmen's toilet 🚺 u+1f6bawomens symbolwomen's toilet 🚻 u+1f6bbrestroompublic toilet or unisex public toilet 🚼 u+1f6bcbaby symbolbaby changing station ♿ u+267fwheelchair symboldisabled accessible facilities 🚽 u+1f6bdtoiletpublic toilet source: toilets in particular locations shopping centres customers often expect retail stores and shopping centres to offer public toilets. customers rank complimentary toilets highly, and their availability influences shopping behaviour. by offering appropriate customer toilets, retail stores and shopping centres may enhance their profits and image; however, many retailers pay insufficient attention to their customer toilet facilities. due to the potential of customer toilets to increase profits and improve store image, retailers could benefit from regarding toilets as a marketing investment rather than a property expense. some business, like starbucks, have officially opted to let anyone use their toilets, without having to purchase anything. this decision was made after a highly publicized instance of racial profiling. schools school toilet in burundi further information: wash § schools lack of adequate school toilets is a very serious problem in many developing countries, and contributes to many problems from poor child health to school drop out. many pit latrines are not adequately built for young children, which has resulted in the tragic consequence of children dying by falling inside the hole. globally, about 620 million children do not have adequate toilets at school and around 900 million cannot wash their hands properly; and almost half of the schools do not provide soap. the situation of inadequate school toilets violates the children's right to education and to right to water and sanitation. such situations are common in many parts of the world, especially in africa and south asia, but also in other regions. for example, in the caucasus and central asia, 30% of schools do not provide adequate toilets and 37% of schools do not have access to adequate water supplies. the presence of soap and toilet paper is very important, but is largely non-existent in many regions. missing or inadequate doors and partitioning are observed in both high- and low-income countries, which can affect the children's self-esteem, especially around puberty; in the case of girls, lack of menstrual hygiene management and privacy (such as the availability of functional toilet doors with locks, disposal facilities and menstrual hygiene products in schools, lack of soap and toilet paper) can severely impact upon their well-being and is considered a form of violation of girl's rights. the bill & melinda gates foundation has funded several research projects for provision of community, shared or school toilets in developing countries since 2011 when they launched their "reinvent the toilet challenge". prisons it is today accepted in the countries of the council of europe that a lack of basic privacy is a violation of fundamental rights. for example, the european court of human rights ruled in szafrański v. poland (2015) that the forcing of prisoners to use the toilet without adequate privacy amounts to a violation of article 8 (right to respect for private life) of the european convention on human rights. gallery gents toilets inspired by the beatles album, abbey road. in parkend, england typical male public toilet in the united states public toilet at the vienna state opera has recorded music roadside squat toilet near toulouse, france traditional squat toilets in beijing, china modern sit toilet in beijing airport, china trough closet cubicles in a hong kong factory public toilet in new hampshire, u.s. an outhouse toilet in rantasalmi, south savonia, finland public toilet at jozankei hot springs, hokkaido, japan public toilets near kullu, himachal pradesh, india public toilets near cinema in bangalore, india sinks in the public toilet of the queensland art gallery inside of cubicle in public toilet in informal settlement in kampala, uganda public toilet by rem koolhaas and erwin olaf in groningen, the netherlands instructions posted in women's, german public toilet gents' toilets in harrods department store in london public squat toilet in hong kong welsh dragon bar, wellington, new zealand; formerly a public toilet toilet sign / aiga badges