Porn On Airplanes

Image: Mark Horn/Getty Images

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The complaints began just days after American Airlines began testing its in-flight internet service this summer. A few passengers were offended that they were in the line of sight of travelers who were pulling up porn sites on their laptop computers. Flight attendants, "empowered" by the airline to police "inappropriate" in-flight Web content, suddenly found themselves refereeing disputes better discussed in the boudoir than in business class.

"It's just icky," one American flight attendant emailed me a few weeks ago. "How do you diplomatically tell one paying passenger that another paying passenger is disgusted by his viewing habits?"

American and its internet provider, Aircell, brought the porn problem on themselves. Before launch, they decided to bar the use of voice-over-internet sites such as Skype. But they chose to leave the rest of the Web accessible at 40,000 feet and rely on the discretion of passengers and the attention of overworked flight attendants. After all, executives at both companies pointed out, passengers don't need the Net to get in-flight porn. They could load it onto their laptops before they fly or bring along a couple of DVDs.

After hearing from its flight attendants' union and getting some, well, icky publicity, American beat a hasty retreat. Last month, the airline announced it was "working with Aircell to implement technology to filter pornographic content." Delta Air Lines, which will soon offer Aircell internet, says it will bar in-flight porn too. And with the exception of Virgin America, which is scheduled to launch its first internet trial this weekend, so will several other carriers preparing to test in-flight Web access.

Unfortunately, we've reached the "slippery slope" part of this column. Smut in the skies is just the latest iteration of a problem that has vexed airlines and passengers for decades, for at least as long as carriers have offered in-flight entertainment. What's "appropriate content" in a mass-market business that involves the uniquely cramped, cheek-by-jowl atmosphere of an aircraft tube?

For decades, airlines screened only the most inoffensive movies and videos on their in-flight entertainment systems. G-rated movies and family fare ruled the skies. PG movies were vetted and anything edgy was left on the metaphoric cutting-room floor: Scenes with plane crashes or hostage situations were eliminated, of course. Violence and gore was trimmed. Bad language was right out. Sex and drugs (if not rock and roll) were bleeped or censored. Movies with an R rating were almost never shown. And it all made sense when a planeful of passengers—a random mix of business travelers, grannies, kids, parents, and prudes—all stared at common overhead screens.

But as airlines introduced individual video systems that permitted dozens, even hundreds, of channels of entertainment on personal, at-seat monitors, standards began to loosen. Social mores changed too. In came movies with gory violence, hip-hop music tracks with raw language, and entertainment with adult themes. Out-and-out porn was still verboten, but carriers stopped barring movies with nudity. Even on aircraft with old-style overhead monitors, films got spicier, a little more violent and, arguably, more in tune with mainstream tastes.

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