I hope the screen was locked

Far more likely there is nothing in front of the ship and riker knows his ass is about to fire some consequence free lasers. He derives great pleasure from the reaction or lack of reaction of the crew on the bridge as he continues to chat about unrelated things
- If you fire a weapon in space, someone is going to have a bad day. It just might be thousands or millions of years in the future, light-years away.
  
  "Sir Isaac Newton is the deadliest son-of-a-bitch in space!"
  -Some Gunnery Sgt.

Unrelated anecdote:
Years ago I had a cheap Blackberry lookalike phone. It had a button lock feature to prevent butt dialing, but some bright spark decided that the lock wouldn't apply to the '9' and '1' keys, presumably so that a user could dial 9-1-1 even if too panicked to unlock the keypad. Which just meant that it was really easy to butt dial 9-1-1...
- Had something similar, except that the code on the phone to dial 911 with the keys locked was #08. Keys were so sensitive I couldn't keep my phone in my pocket, had to live in my bag or it'd be dialling emergency services.

I'd be more worried that the panel is running plasma though it. Plasma that often violently explodes when the ship takes damage. He really trusts those panels with his butt.
- Nah, it's on the bridge... that panel is loaded to the max with rocks and fireworks.

Now, if he took off his pants...that'd be a different story.
- i’m sure if we have palm rejection worked out in tablets, ass cheek rejection is absolutely future table-screen tech

Arguing over such details is pretty silly when you consider that if we have spaceships in the 24th century they'll probably be completely autonomous, and people will simply ride around in them without even knowing how they work. We just like to make up imperfect but fun stories where the future is the present + gadgets. George Jetson endures rush-hour traffic jams in his space car.
- This is one of the things that annoyed me about the latest Dune movies: all the switches in the cockpits of the ornithopters. Nothing else in that universe seems to require switches, but the ornithopters are set up like 1980s helicopters for some reason.
  
  LOL nice observation, I didn't notice but yeah, that's dead on.

Prodigy is a kids show but it still counts as canon, and there are a couple scenes of ass phasering going on.

Were just going to ignore that Bryce Dallas Howard is just there, apparently immortal or something?
- Actually, that's Patricia Tallman. I went to highschool with her son.
  
  It was a joke dude. Dear lord

My bum is on the console, my bum is on the console. Look at me my bum is on the console.

If I cannot operate a computer with my ass by the 24th century, I'm putting us all in a time loop until someone does something about that.

I'll be surprised if we don't have assprint unlock by then
- “Today, Apple is announcing assID.”
  
  They do have a product to place the sensor on.

Is it just me or were a lot of crew women in TNG noticeably buxom?
- Probably just the way the uniform fits. That's Patricia Tallman, who also body doubled for Gates McFadden, and played Lyta Alexander on Babylon 5. She's a hot redhead (even after all these years), but not especially buxom in regular clothes.