Coffee, tea or pornography?

American Airlines flight attendants are worried about something special in the air: passengers surfing porn websites.

As the airline adds on-board Internet service, some travelers might be tempted to visit seedy alleyways off the information superhighway. So the Assn.  of Professional Flight Attendants, which represents 19,000 American Airlines flight attendants, has talked with management about installing filtering software to keep inappropriate Web content grounded, union spokesman David Roscow said today.

"Some passengers and some of the flight attendants have had some concerns about them going to inappropriate sites like porn sites," he said, although he was unaware of any actual incidents.

American is one of several airlines experimenting with Internet service. While some, such as JetBlue, are using filtering software, others, including American, are leaving it up to flight attendants to monitor. American spokesman Tim Smith explained the company's decision this way in an e-mail today:

Our policy is to provide Wi-Fi capabilities the way customers are most familiar using [them] at home, office, coffee shops and on the road -- with unfiltered connections that allow customers to get what they need, when they need it. While it does provide a new access point for information and content, customers viewing inappropriate material on-board a flight is not a new scenario for our crews who have always managed this issue with great success.

Smith noted that American's service, which began Aug. 20, is in a trial period of up to six months. So just like items in the overhead bins, details of the program may shift after takeoff. At the end of the period, American plans to evaluate feedback, including the number of actual incidents. In the meantime, it's up to flight attendants to make sure that Web surfing, like those seat backs during takeoff and landing, remains in an upright position.

-- Jim Puzzanghera

Photo: American Airlines passenger Emmaline Allwood gets information on Aircell's in-flight broadband Internet service, Gogo, from Jared Karns in the AA terminal at JFK Airport in New York City last month.  Credit: Jonathan Fickies / American Airlines

Comments

[Joseph]

While I would certainly be concerned with other passengers unwittingly witnessing pornography on another passenger's internet surfing, I hope the airlines remember that some filters can be excessive an automatically block websites that are non-pornographic simply because of a term in their indentifier. A prime example of this are gay/lesbian websites that provided information, news, gossip, etc., such as AfterElton and AfterEllen, both of which I have found blocked by filters but which are in no way pornographic.

[RobMaybeBob]

Porn? This is the worst thing that a passenger might look at while on board an aircraft? What about the "mile-high club," where passengers claim to actually have had sex in the plane? I'm surprised they aren't concerned, say, with a website that might describe how to hijack a plane. I'm sure there's at least one website devoted to that. Where does the filtering end?Would they block a site that tracks how often their planes crash? And do they really think that someone is going to fly on a plane just to get a chance to view porn in a public place? Seems unlikely!

[SkyBeaver]

These concerns seem like much ado about nothing.

The first time a stewardess gets on the PA and says "will the gentleman seated in 13B kindly stop looking at gay porno", I think the problem will be solved permanently.

[Scott P]

I can't imagine that anyone is going to want to pay... whatever the airlines are going to overcharge... just to surf for porn. An airplane CAN'T be their only access to the web!
Leave it to the whiney flight attendants to cause an uproar BEFORE a problem even occurs. Has there been a problem with people reading Playboy or Hustler on the planes, and if so, has it really caused any real "problems"?

[Silverlake Guy]

Actually, this is likely in preparation for the inevitable surcharge: all G-rated sites are free, nominal charge for PG-13, R-rated sites extra and you gotta pay a premium for X-rated sites. Added to the existing regulations of what I can pack, eat and bring on board, this completes flying as the ultimate Orwellian experience. Perfecto.

[Carrie M. Boyer]

Pornography is the bridge to sexual assault and child sexual molestation.--Clindt Van Zandt, former chief Profiler, FBI.

[Victor]

They sell Swank & Hustler in the the gift shops and they're worried about Internet? Unbelievable.

[Luke J.]

Do they really need to have software? Seems to be pretty common-sense, after all, I think the airline would handle this the same way if someone watched a porno on dvd or was looking at pornographic images they had on their laptop both of which don't need wi-fi.

[Dean]

If the 9/11 hijackers had had access to porn on the plane, they might have been too distracted to complete their mission.

[swag]

Because we all know Internet porn is far worse than a passenger playing a porn DVD on their laptop or reading Shaved magazine.

[Tyler E.]

Unnecessary security risk, from either the radio interference view, to the lets give terrorist communications capabilities angle.