Porn on Planes?

The recent announcement from American Airlines regarding wireless Internet service on airplanes has caused quite a stir. The Association of Professional Flight Attendants have raised concern about passengers viewing questionable content during the flight. That questionable content, specifically, would be porn.

Although most people would agree that viewing pornography during a commercial flight is a no-no, it seems that both flight attendants and passengers worry that some might try to do so anyway and have launched a campaign for American to filter its in-flight wireless service. The airline, however, has instead chosen to leave monitoring up to flight attendants, who by all accounts already have plenty of work to do.

According to Fox News, Delta, Alaska, and Northwest, all plan to roll out unfiltered Internet service soon, while JetBlue and Continental intend to filter some content. International airlines also plan to follow American's lead, with the exception of Australia's Qantas.

The hope is that people will use their own good judgment while flying the friendly skies, but what if they don't? Should flight attendants be responsible for determining what constitutes an offensive site?

On the other hand, is filtering the right choice? And will it even be effective? There are two major issues behind this possibility.

GoGo, the company which supplies wireless Internet to the airlines, already filters VOIP (voice over internet protocol) services from fliers, so as not to disturb passengers by allowing customers to make phone calls. Even still, some passengers have already managed to evade this block. Therefore, there's nothing stopping them from evading a block on pornography.

The other issue is in defining "offensive content". Although most frequent fliers would certainly oppose the viewing of porn during a flight, where should the line be drawn? If children are the main concern, should content containing vulgar words or scantily clad women be filtered as well?

While adding wi-fi to flights is a positive for most, there are concerns that come along it, whether filtered or not. Even if what you're viewing would not be deemed offensive by your neighbor, it's worth considering if you'd want your neighbor to see it at all. USA Today suggests investing in a privacy screen to avoid allowing anyone to see your work.

Another potential solution, and one that would find support even from those with no desire to use in-flight wi-fi, would be to create separate family and adult sections that would allow adults to sit away from children, thus eliminating the need for filtering.