Frustrated Mom Forced To Block Son’s View Of Explicit Scene After Flight Crew’s Ineffective Response

Jun 05, 2023 by apost team

Many parents are careful to ensure that their children are only exposed to entertainment content appropriate for their age. But what happens when a parent and their child are essentially trapped within the confines of an airplane when explicit content is in clear view and with nowhere else to go?

Such was the case for one mother who found herself on a flight with her 15-year-old son on the way to a national speech competition. Shortly after take-off and settling in for the journey, the mother was perusing the in-flight entertainment system for something to watch when she realized a passenger seated in the row immediately in front of her and her son was watching a program that had an explicit nude scene that was clear for the both of them to see. She told Business Insider when she realized the screen was in her son’s line of sight, she moved to block his view.

“I was shocked. That shock turned to horror as I realized the scene was in clear view of my son sitting right next to me,” LaKeisha Fleming said. She added, “I positioned myself to cover the opening between the seats, obscuring his view.”

She explained that the passenger had not been watching the program on their own device but that it was playing on the seat back screen provided by the airline.

Once the scene had ended, the mother approached the cabin crew on the flight. However, she found their response disappointing.

“I went to the flight attendants to ask for help. They offered to move our seats. Even then, they said, someone else could play that same content. In essence, there was nothing they could do,” she explained. 

According to studies, exposure to sexually explicit content can be harmful to children and adolescents. One study published by the research journal PLoS One concluded that “Sexually explicit media exposure during early adolescence has been found to be associated with risky sexual behavior.” The study also cited previous research as indicating that such early exposure was “related to early sexual debut, inconsistent condom use/unsafe sex and multiple sexual partners.”

Such worries played on Fleming’s mind during the onboard incident, which prompted her to reach out to the airline’s executive office via email. However, she found the response from the airline lacking.

“The response I received from the airline's seat-back-entertainment team was the same as on board — if it happens again, change seats. This response does nothing to address the content being available in the first place,” she lamented. 

Most in-flight entertainment systems are operated by companies outsourced by the airline, many of which offer airlines a choice of a theatrical/broadcast version or an in-flight edited version. According to Hong Kong-based Encore Inflight Limited CEO Jovitah Toh, “Each airline will provide the distributors with their censorship guidelines and distributors will work with them on the edits,” and the most common amendments are for “nudity, implicit sex scenes, religious representations, plane crashes, competitor airlines' logos, swear words and images or mention of pigs or pork for Muslim carriers.”

As for Fleming, she urged airlines to manage the content available on their flights more stringently. She said:

“US airlines have the choice to edit their TV shows and movies so they were appropriate for general audiences. In such close quarters, where screens are clearly visible to people in the surrounding area, this would be a responsible and ethical option and one they should reconsider.”

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What do you think of the incident that affected Fleming and her son? Do you agree with her sentiments on in-flight programming? Let us know your thoughts, and then pass this along to friends and family to get their take on the issue, too.