Cover your eyes: Not all airlines will filter Wi-Fi

Nothing wrong with filtering such content in such a close quarter setting. Anyone that would have the audacity to view porn while on a plane needs mental help.

Tactful surfing only! Keep your porn mags under the bed!

Rules are rules.

K

absolutely they should have the right. an airliner is a private vehicle, owned by the stockholders, not some public forum. there is a reason strip joints and adult themed book stores have no windows. i should not have to worry about my children being exposed to potentially harmful images while on a family vacation, just like there are laws against viewing pornographic materials say, in a flip down roof mounted car t.v. there should be in a setting like this as well. it is common sense. those kind of materials are and should be kept private.

I agree with Joe.  Airport newstands sell "adult magazines," but there isn't a rash if inappropriate viewing on airlines for the past twenty years has there?

The problem with filters or censors is that it may deem something inappropriate when it really isn't. 

If a person is viewing an inappropriate magazine on a plane that is offending a nearby passenger, then the flight attendant has the right to demand that they discontinue.  The same should go for inappropriate surfing.

The problem occurs when the filter blocks my viewing of a chicken BREST receipe and allows the PEN{S advertisements through.  While the filters are usually more "sophicated" than that it creates a problem whenever censorship is invoked.

The question is why people are looking at someone else's monitor in the first place.  How about the airlines provide privacy screens instead?

Of course Wi-Fi on airplanes should be filtered.  People are sitting within inches of each other, and even if one tries not to look at what the neighboring passenger is viewing, the fact is that on an airplane, if you turn your head six inches in either direction, you view those things whether you want to or not, due to the closeness of seating.

There is always "that guy".  Everyone knows him, the guy who just doesn't "get it".  "That guy" who shouts on his cell phone in the plane cabin, chews with his mouth wide open, uses profanity loudly in front of small children, and wouldn't really think too far into viewing porn on an airplane.  There's always "that guy" who is painfully oblivious to standard acceptable social behavior.  The fact is, YES people have freedom of choice, but we're expected to behave appropriately in public.  One cannot walk into an airport naked simply because of "freedom of choice", just as one shouldn't be able to bring a naked image up on a computer screen in public where it is easily viewable by others. 

I do not want to be exposed to those images, and I would be furious and simply irate if my child was walking back from the airplane restroom and was exposed to vulgar pornography on someone's screen.  In a world where the lines of right and wrong are quickly dissolving, there ARE some things that are still black and white, right and wrong.  And viewing pornography six-inches away from a stranger is definitely wrong.

Cara should drive.

I'm generally against any form of censorship, but this is just common sense.   Not filtering wi-fi internet would definitely end up in a court as a sexual harrassment suit from some flight attendant who got sick of seeing "that guy" a couple of times per week. 

This is such a non-issue. Probably perpetuated by the filtering software companies. And guess who is going to be paying for that filtering software ? The customers. Even the ones that can't afford a laptop.

Listen you can get on a plane today, be served alcohol bring on porn magazines and create the same "nightmare situataion" that people are jumping to with this though of no filter. The reason people don't do this or any other things that may be viewed as vulgar and offensive is the social norms and crowd mentality that would not allow it. If someone was viewing offensive material regardless if it was digital or in magazine form in any kind of crowded area would simply be asked by any normal adult to simply put it away. There is no need to force airlines to pony up for this extra cost that will be pushed down to the customer.

A person would have to be an unthinking fanatical idealist to be against censoring the internet during flights. We as a society have a civic duty to protect children and promote decency. If it's controversial, then view it at home.

Wow, just how rude is Steven? Cara is right on. While adults can take care of themselves, as a parent I am most concerned about protecting the innocence of my children for as long as possible. While they are already bombarded with sexual inendo at the least and outright sexual content at the worst at ground level we now may have to face it at 39,000 feet. Here's the problem...my idea of appropriate may be someone elses definition of porn.

Give me a break, if people really want to watch porn, they can watch a DVD or downloaded video on their computers, too. The problem is not the Wi-Fi or the filter. A normal person should have the decency not to watch adult contend materials in public, period.

Words used previously...Len should drive.

The reason it needs to be filtered is there are ignorant people who have not respect for others. Since American Airlines undertands this and decided to take a stand they will be first on my list.

No, I don't think airlines should filter. I think most people have the common decency to know what is right to view in public and what isn't. But if they do choose to do so then, they have the right to watch and download what they want. People should just mind their own business and for kids parents should just watch your kids.

wow....now this crap is really important. 

will the self-appointed guardians of our moral values ever stop?  somebody needs to find these pathetic people something to do.

if someone wants to NOT mind their own biz and look at what I"m looking at, then hope you enjoy it too!!

I find nasty smelly people(be it body odor or bad choice of cologne) offensive yet I still get stuck sitting beside them. Get rid of them then I'll agree to let you take my dirty movie i'm watching on MY computer in the seat I paid for.

Cara---You know I agree with you but I do have a question. How long can I look at a woman's chest before it's staring (and how long before I can look back)???

This is really quite simple. RESPONSABILITY. Something the USA is really lacking. Whatever the issue is it is NEVER MY FAULT. Always someone elses. If I am flying on an airline and happen to glance a screen showing blatent porn I would look for the closest attendant and ask them to politly remove that persons laptop from them. It SHOULD be that simple. Terms and conditions people. Make that part of the terms and conditions for the purchase of the WiFi service.

If there are ANY complaints then your laptop (or of any viewing, audio or gaming device) for inappropriate viewing of material, loadness or violence, then you forfit your PRIVALAGE of using those devices. It is NOT your right in that small inclosed and uncomfertable cabin to do whatever the hell you want to do. IT IS THAT SIMPLE. Of course these items can be returned to the user once the plane has landed. But if you are stupid or ignorant enough to not know that what you are doing is offensive then you WILL loose your privalage of using that device.

Don't get me wrong here, I LOVE porn. There are PRIVATE places where I and my spose can view PORN to our hearts content. Seat 42B is not one of them. Nor for that matter is Cabin car 24, or Bus B, or McDonalds, Starbucks, I could go on forever. There is a place for it and thousands of places it just shouldn't be.

I don't think porn should allowed on airplanes. It's a mode of public transporation,  I think it's silly to download porn from a CD, DVD or connect with Wi-Fi to get your daily porn fix. Save the porn in the privacy of your home or dwelling.

Case in point, ten years ago some guy brought a Playboy on Southwest, and some little kid, stands on his chair and looks over, and see this guy browsing the magazine. How do I know this? My husband and I are two rows down, when we hear.

"Mommy, why is that man looking at woman  with no clothes. How come they're aren't wearing any pants?"

Now everyone on the plane turned around, and the stewardess and a male steward started walking up the aisle with the food cart. The mother  turned around and asked the man, " Sir could you please change your reading material." The man said, "Maybe your kid should sit in his chair." Sensing an arguement brewing. The stewardess, went past us and made a bee line with the food cart to the mother and child.  She immediately  started to take the drink order and passed out snacks.

She took down the child and mother's order first and passed out some crackers and apple juice, and the mother was about to say something, and the stewardess quickly addressed the man.

"What would you like to drink Sir?" Then she quietly asked the  man, to put away his magazine and read something else. He did so without causing a scene. The stewardess handle it beautifully. The stewardess was very polite, but very discreet. I like that type of service.

How about the passengers forced to listen to the idoit next to him/her cell phone conversation. We need to filter that too. Or the loud passenger who cant keep his/her voice down. We need a filter there too. HOW ABOUT JUST MINDING YOUR OWN BUISNESS.

Viewing "porn" on planes should not be allowed, but there is no reason to fitler. As someone else has mentioned, make it part of the terms and conditions. Honestly, I doubt this would be a widespread problem. In the few cases where it might come up, I think the flight attendents should handle it, and the terms and conditions should allow the airlines to take appropriate measures to surpress offensive behavior by passengers (ie maybe confiscating the equipment, or some other kind of action like a fine, obviously depending upon the severity of the issue). The argument of "mind your own" business just doesn't seem to hold water in such a close-quarters setting.

I don't take issue with whether or not the airlines choose to limit what's available on their Wi-Fi networks ... what I DO take issue with are the cartoon images in Joe's article! Are only hairy-chested, tatooed, thug looking men going to view porn on the internet? Are only nuns and boyscouts going to be offended? While we're having this "to censor or not to censor" discussion, could we perhaps take the sterotypes out of the assumptions?

Perhaps the Bluto-looking guy considering going to an online porn site could just politlely ask the nun sitting beside him if she would object to his watching a bit of porn for awile! Maybe she'd be willing to cover the boyscout's eyes while he porn-surfs! Or, perhaps the airlines could designate a couple of "Porn Watchers" rows in the rear cabin seating.

Surely, I jest? Of course. But, for those who decry the practice of limiting internet content in such intimate and close quarters, would they be more comfortable with just owning up to their proclivities?

~Kj

Who's to say whats appropriate and what's not? Also it's been my experience that unless you are looking full on at a computer screen the viewing experience is very limited.

I travel extensively and although I don't make it a habit, I have seen many other passegers thumbing through Playboy magazine and Cosmopolitan magazine. The flight attendants don't seem offended by this, so why pick on the wi-fi users?