Porn on a plane: Flight attendants fret over inappropriate Web surfing
I recently wrote a column about using American Airlines' new in-flight Wi-Fi service to blog at 37,000 feet. I did a couple of speed tests and ran some Hulu video, but the one thing I never thought of doing is pulling up a porn site.
Now, Bloomberg is reporting that American's flight attendants are concerned about just that--that too many passengers will try to get their mile-high Web porn fixes.
It's unclear whether those worries stem from a specific incident or incidents, but it appears both passengers and flight attendants raised some red flags and the leaders of the American Association of Flight Attendants brought it up with American Airlines' management. They urged the company "to filter its in-flight Internet service to block access to pornography and other Web sites the workers said were inappropriate."
No mile-high Web porn fix for me.
(Credit: John Falcone/CNET Networks)Personally, I get a little embarrassed when even a semi-nude scene flashes on the screen of my iPod or portable DVD player while I'm watching a movie on a plane (we're talking R-rated here). If there are any younger fliers around I'll do my best to shield the screen or jump ahead a chapter. But people do some crazy stuff on planes, so it wouldn't totally surprise me to hear about a passenger casually perusing some porn sites and thinking nothing of it. There are people out there who think, "I bought this seat, I can act or smell as badly as I want in it."
Moral majority aside, I can see where the flight attendants are coming from. They're the ones who have to deal with passengers' complaints and will be forced to regulate what people are looking at. Better to nip it in the bud and block sites like they do at a lot of workplaces. But the problem is there's some subjectivity when it comes to what's offensive or not. Just ask Janet Jackson.
Anybody have any solutions? Or good stories about people watching sketchy material on a plane you were on? Let us know in the Talkback section.
Hunkered down in New York City, Executive Editor David Carnoy covers the gamut of gadgets and writes his Fully Equipped column, which carries the tag line "The electronics you lust for." He's also the author of "Knife Music," a novel. E-mail David. Follow David on Twitter.
Unless the whole point was get as many men as possible to click on this article because you put "PORN" in the title?
Perhaps I'm stupid, I don't go to the Library.
What exactly do public libraries do regarding porn and public internet access??
I used it before I bought my computer, and it is pretty well appointed in most libraries.
I believe that pornography should be restricted on airplanes, especially because not all people (as demonstrated here already) share the same views on pornography. Just because you paid for the seat next to me, that doesn't mean that you have the right to subject me to illicit content.
As for what can be deemed inappropriate...I think airlines would be safe sticking to the same guidelines that workplaces adhere to.
1. You're paying to use it on a plane, so you feel you should be able to do what you want (kind of like paying for unlimited bandwidth cable internet). Public library access is usually free (unless you count your public tax dollars). You also pay to use internet in some airports and bookstores, which is unrestricted, but see the the next point.
2. The main issue here is "captive audience". In a library or the airport terminal, if someone is looking at something that makes you uncomfortable, you can walk away. If you're sitting next to the person on a flight, you can't really escape from the situation.
Solution: make all laptop users use one of these
http://gizmodo.com/380625/body+laptop-wooly-jumper-offers-privacy-warmth-and-a-big-bucket-of-ridicule
I believe that pornography should be restricted on airplanes, especially because not all people (as demonstrated here already) share the same views on pornography. Just because you paid for the seat next to me, that doesn't mean that you have the right to subject me to illicit content.
As for what can be deemed inappropriate...I think airlines would be safe sticking to the same guidelines that workplaces adhere to.
You are also right that most children already know what porn is by a VERY young age. Heck, I found my father's stash when I was 4 years old, and it didn't harm me at all.
Yeah, that's where the free stuff comes from...but last I checked, any digital device including DVD's (!!!) CD's, thumb drives and internal HDD's are capable of storing and displaying porn. For that matter, iPODS, iPhones and any other number of devices have this ability. So unless the flight attendants have seen (can document?) porn use in the flight cabin from all these devices, it will likely not be anymore prevalent with inflight access to the net.
Where's the data on public willingness to display porn on digital devices in public venues? And the degree to which it is tolerated?
OTOH, it might be a good idea to keep the drives clean for international flights. Thanks to our newly created no-privacy laws, the TSA and its fellow TLA agencies can confiscate, keep, and copy any electronic storage device that passes through customs. Don't give'em an excuse...they thrive on it.
Guy Blaise
Guy Blaise
They are also beginning to realize and accept that children are going to see other naked humans, are going to see pornography, etc. and are just realizing that it does not harm children and in fact, the ones that are harmed are the ones who do NOT see that stuff from being ignorant about their own bodies and the bodies of others.
1. Some libraries do nothing. Librarians tend to be very liberal, even to the point of defending children's "rights" to view porn and keeping this secret from their parents. The ALA holds this irresponsible view, but many librarians have better common sense. Porn is for adults.
2. Many libraries filter porn sites using a filter or software such as Net Nanny. At my library we did this, and maintained a PC in a private area for researchers who had a genuine need to conduct research on sensitive sites at our library. The rationale was that people were free to look at porn at home, did not need to tie up one of our machines from another patron who might need to do real work on it, and the rights of our patrons and their children outweighed the "rights" of the occasional porn viewer who felt some need to do this in a very public place where children were present.
3. This problem is not unique to the Internet. An individual may have previously downloaded pornography to their computer before any flight on any airline or in any public place. Displaying porn to an unwilling female (or male) employee in the workplace is widely considered to be sexual harassment. You may have the right to view it, but if you do it in a way that an unwilling employee cannot avoid seeing it, you can be charged with sexual harassment. This also applies outside of the workplace. Thus, if American Airlines forced their employees to look at sexual content, they could be sued. Likewise, a man or woman who displays nudes to an unwilling person could be sued privately for sexual harassment. Thus the flight attendant could point out that the person must stop displaying these pictures to others or face legal consequences. It's a simple--tell the person to quit displaying the content face a sexual harassment suit!
4. American Airlines is not under any obligation to allow any particular behavior in their planes, nor provide any particular Internet content. You may have a right to possess porn on your laptop, but the airline doesn't have to allow you to bring it up and view it in their planes. They can simply make a rule against it or filter their Internet service. They would need to inform people who are paying for these flights that their content was filtered to protect the rights of their employees and children on the plane. They can, should, and probably will do this.
Porn on plain. sounds like Snacks on plain LOL. I do not have kids at this point in time but I would love to be a Dad.
I think porn on plains is so fore not worth worring about that its makes me LOL. You know as well as I do we can't shild kids from the world. Now please hear me out before jumping down my throught. Now I can not speek for anyone but me. My family are the most loving people I know. When I was a child so many moons ago. Me and my Dad would whatch horror movies every Friday night and I was very very yung at the time. But I loved to whatch horror movies to this day. Now I know what you are thinking horror movies are not porn by the way I hate the word porn lest just say Adult Movie. But in many ways they are simler. Now I am not going to get into this to much. But just to say in a nut shell. I came out fine. I did not turn into a bad person or at least I do not see myself as one. All of the people I came along with being my friends they came out fine to.
Now I am not saying that parents should not protected there kids. I just think that theres more bad things in the world that we need to protected them from then TV,FILM,VIDEO,MUSIC.WEB,VIDEO GAMES and so on. Again I am sorry and I know I am going to get alot of hate replays. I hope I don't but most likly I will.
With the extremely high prices airlines charge for wi-fi, anyone who really wants to watch porn on an airplane are going to bring it with them.
The airlines can't block it, because anyone can set up a simple file server and home and they can access it on a plane.
These people who make a living handing out crap meals and serving as much alcohol as they can to people should probably be more concerned about the 2 dozen drunk idiots in their tin can.
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by rdinocco
September 15, 2008 2:03 PM PDT
- I guess I don't really get the concern. We can already watch porn-in-a-plane on our laptops from the harddrive, right? I just can't imagine this problem won't take care of itself.
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