In-Flight Entertainment: Not Always Suitable for Children
And when the movies aren't appropriate for kids, it's not like you can get up and leave.
I really feel for parents flying with small children. Over the last 20 years, I have seen a sad degradation of the available in-flight entertainment. It used to be that you might be bored by what the airline chose to show — but you didn’t ever find yourself wishing that your children weren’t on board because of it.
I can remember about ten years ago or so starting to see airlines warn that the in-flight entertainment might not be appropriate to all ages; parents might want to think about whether this was something that they wanted their kids to watch. I don’t see those warnings anymore.
I recently had occasion to fly to Chicago and back to participate in a symposium on Second Amendment law. The flight back from Chicago being roughly three hours, United Airlines showed an episode of The Office and the film The Proposal. In both cases, there was about 1-2% of each that could have been excised with no artistic loss at all — and it would have turned both presentations into something that would have been unoffensive to almost every traveler.
The Office is a somewhat quirky series shot in a pseudo-documentary style about a bunch of people who work together in an office paper sales company. I found it not very clever or witty — although trying very hard to be — but there was one line that seems like it was put in there just to make it disturbing to parents with small children. The line concerns one character’s claimed ability to make a certain body part retract completely inside of his body.
The Proposal was one of those movies that, had I been in the vicinity of a theater when it came out and had nothing better to do, I would have probably seen. Sandra Bullock is a pleasure to watch perform and can be very funny. Overall, I enjoyed The Proposal, even though it was somewhat predictable in a very sweet way. But the sequence with the exotic male dancer was completely unnecessary. It didn’t advance the plot at all and it was implausible (at least partly because it is the grandmother who drags the Bullock character along).
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Clayton E. Cramer is a software engineer and historian. His sixth book, Armed America: The Remarkable Story of How and Why Guns Became as American as Apple Pie (Nelson Current, 2006), is available in bookstores. His web site is www.claytoncramer.com.
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33 Comments
1. Rob:The picture in this article shows each seat having an individual screen, a feature which is pretty standard on airplanes now. I know from first hand experience that it’s hard to see any other screen but your own from where you are sitting. I really think that you are making more out of this than necessary. You’d be better off complaining about why movie theater owners allow parents to bring their young children to violent R-rated movies in lieu of leaving them at home with a sitter, then I’d agree with you.
Please dont use the “Think of the Children” argument in an effort to curb what others watch. Be the parent, take charge of what your kids are watching in flight.
Sep 26, 2009 - 11:30 pm 2. e:The last flight I was on that had inflight entertainment had several channels to choose from. Worst case scenario you could have put them on the GPS map channel and had them look out the window.
I think the best way to keep a kid from watching TV is to put a Nintendo DS in front of their face. :p
Sep 27, 2009 - 7:47 am 3. Patel:It’s been a long time since I’ve had my kids on a flight that didn’t include the individual screens where you can choose from a menu of options. In the past we brought either our laptop or a portable DVD and kid’s movies to hopefully keep the little ones occupied and not causing problems for our neighbors.
The thing that really bothers me is billboards. We have some billboards in our city for urologists, as well as adult entertainment clubs that cross the line for being viewable from the highway. It’s one thing to have a sign that says “gentlemen’s club”, the young kids in my carpool didn’t think it unusual that boys would want to have their own club. But try explaining “all nude all the time” with an (implied) naked woman on the sign or “longer, stronger by tonight” sign with a half naked couple to a carpool full of elementary students. Ugh!
Sep 27, 2009 - 8:09 am 4. Jettboy:Unless things have changed in three years, I did watch a movie in flight on a big screen like it was a movie theater. The viewing screens on the back of the seats exist, but they aren’t on every plane just yet.
Sep 27, 2009 - 8:18 am 5. Bane Windlow:For God’s sake, lighten up. Just because you might prefer to live like a Quaker doesn’t mean the rest of us should have to.
Sep 27, 2009 - 10:49 am 6. Thatguy:LEave them at home. No one wants to sit near your kids anyway.
Sep 27, 2009 - 10:54 am 7. alex:Of all the items on an Airplane that should cause concern, entertainment does not make the top 100.
Sep 27, 2009 - 11:07 am 8. edna:Clayton, you are correct in your thinking; how does anyone know what is going to be in the movie that you tune on until it gets to that part of the film? It shouldn’t be there in the first place.
Sep 27, 2009 - 11:33 am 9. JeninCT:As a consumer, I understand that everything produced by Hollywood is produced with sales in mind, so I don’t expect them to remove the gratuitous sex and violence if it’s what will sell their products.
As a parent I’m more concerned what’s being taught in classrooms than what’s being shown on flights.
As a few posters have already pointed out, kids will watch what’s in front of them, so pack a portable DVD player, game console, or better yet, a book.
Sep 27, 2009 - 11:45 am 10. Clayton E. Cramer:The picture in this article shows each seat having an individual screen, a feature which is pretty standard on airplanes now.
Not on the flight that I was on–or most airliners I have been on in the last few years.
Sep 27, 2009 - 12:08 pm 11. Clayton E. Cramer:It’s one thing to have a sign that says “gentlemen’s club”, the young kids in my carpool didn’t think it unusual that boys would want to have their own club. But try explaining “all nude all the time” with an (implied) naked woman on the sign or “longer, stronger by tonight” sign with a half naked couple to a carpool full of elementary students. Ugh!
Fortunately, you don’t see billboards like that in Boise. But I confess to being disappointed and repelled when I visit Los Angeles.
Sep 27, 2009 - 12:09 pm 12. Clayton E. Cramer:For God’s sake, lighten up. Just because you might prefer to live like a Quaker doesn’t mean the rest of us should have to.
I don’t much care what you live like (at least not enough to have the government involved). But I would prefer not having your values imposed in a setting where I can’t easily leave with a child. Imagine if airline flights started with a pastor leading everyone in prayer!
Sep 27, 2009 - 12:12 pm 13. Clayton E. Cramer:LEave them at home. No one wants to sit near your kids anyway.
I’ve been on a few flights that seemed to be going to the Screaming Baby Convention. But for the most part, kids over about five or six aren’t generally a problem, even in the same row. What’s your problem with kids?
Sep 27, 2009 - 12:13 pm 14. Clayton E. Cramer:Of all the items on an Airplane that should cause concern, entertainment does not make the top 100.
Agreed. But just because it isn’t in the top 100, does that mean that it isn’t legitimate to express concern about it?
Sep 27, 2009 - 12:14 pm 15. Delia:“Imagine if airline flights started with a pastor leading everyone in prayer!”
Actually, that wouldn’t be such a bad idea.
Sep 27, 2009 - 1:57 pm 16. NahnCee:I have noticed for years now that the first thing people who have childen do upon bringing them home from the hospital is to start looking around for someone else to take dare of them. Like Ms. Hillry says, many people are convinced that, “It takes a village.”
Well, I chose *not* to have children and I do resent your inducting me into your village to help you raise your kids just because *you* chose to spawn. I have to pay for your kids’ healthcare and education already, and I have to put up with their noisy antics in restaurants and the supermarket and the library, but do we now have to make airlines kid-friendly, too, while the rest of us are suffering from being strip-searched like terrorists?
Please, get a little persepective on the millions of children who were raised in the middle of the Revolutionary War and the Civil War, not to mention the Great Depression and the election of Barack Obama, and figure out that even two 90-minute movies on an airline is not going to scar your little darlings for life.
Unless, of course, they are Disney movies and feature the death of Bambi’s mother or Old Yeller.
Sep 27, 2009 - 5:23 pm 17. Clayton E. Cramer:I have noticed for years now that the first thing people who have childen do upon bringing them home from the hospital is to start looking around for someone else to take dare of them. Like Ms. Hillry says, many people are convinced that, “It takes a village.”
Mostly, it takes parents (if at all possible, two of them). Don’t confuse me with a liberal who uses children as an excuse for government continuing to expand control. You don’t find me making any calls for regulations above.
Well, I chose *not* to have children and I do resent your inducting me into your village to help you raise your kids just because *you* chose to spawn. I have to pay for your kids’ healthcare and education already, and I have to put up with their noisy antics in restaurants and the supermarket and the library, but do we now have to make airlines kid-friendly, too, while the rest of us are suffering from being strip-searched like terrorists?
1. In what way are paying for my children’s health care? My kids have never been on any governmental health insurance program. Ever.
2. If you want the government out of the business of education, you won’t get any argument from me!
3. “Noisy antics”: I rather doubt that you know either of my children. With my daughter, from about eight months to about four years, we didn’t eat anywhere nicer than McDonald’s with her, precisely because we didn’t want her to disturb others. (Our son was a bit calmer, but we went through a similar phase with him.) And when either of our children became noisy or difficult in a public place, either my wife or me walked right out to make sure that he or she didn’t disturb others.
4. Strip-searched? I’ve never had to go below my belt and shoes. Tell us more. And how, exactly, does what I wrote in some way justify strip searching or even the annoying stuff we have to go through when boarding aircraft these days?
5. Spawn? Oh my. Comparing members of your species that decide to have children to fish–it’s quite reminiscent of how guards would yell at inmates, “Kein arbeiten, kein fressen!” (”No work, no feeding”–but “fressen” is a word often used to describe animals feeding, and when used with reference to people, it’s implication of animalistic feeding.)
6. Never a child yourself, I guess. I suppose it’s a good thing that the society wasn’t full of people like you when your parents chose to “spawn.”
My children don’t fit your description at all. And so far, my daughter and son-in-law seem to be following in our model of how to deal with their daughter in public places. There’s a word for people like you who see all children (and parents) as identical: bigot.
Please, get a little persepective on the millions of children who were raised in the middle of the Revolutionary War and the Civil War, not to mention the Great Depression and the election of Barack Obama, and figure out that even two 90-minute movies on an airline is not going to scar your little darlings for life.
Unless, of course, they are Disney movies and feature the death of Bambi’s mother or Old Yeller.
1. When did I say “scar… for life”?
2. By your reasoning, because millions of children grew up before antibiotics and vaccination, there’s no need for either to have been invented.
Sep 27, 2009 - 6:40 pm 18. Jettboy:Clayton E. Cramer,
I feel your pain. When even self-described (I think) Conservatives express disdain for children and public moral decency, I have to scratch my head in wonder. What is wrong with this world?
Sep 27, 2009 - 6:48 pm 19. alex:Seriously, if your going to go after airline industry try starting with the fact crews are worked to exhaustion, FAA cannot seem to decide if its promoting the industry or regulating it, Airlines fought tooth and Nail against tighter safety regulations until 9/11, passengers are acceptable losses in their risk assessments for maintenance schedules, and the dozens of other issues plaguing the Airline industry.
A child arriving safely should be the priority.
Sep 27, 2009 - 7:59 pm 20. Joe:@NahnCee: my only consolation after reading your comment is that at least you will not pass your feckless attitude on to another generation.
Sep 27, 2009 - 8:24 pm 21. Parent of 3:NahnCee – Clayton already made most of the correct points, but let me add one more – not only are you not paying for my kid’s health care or education (private schools) – you DO plan to live off our investment in our children and their efforts. It’s called social security and by not having any kids you are robbing the rest of us who do have kids. (Your social security “contributions” don’t count because those are going to pay current retirees, your benefits will have to come from today’s children.) So any time some innocent child imposes on your perfect world, just look at them and remember, that’s your meal ticket in a couple decades and you aren’t paying for it.
Sep 28, 2009 - 6:40 am 22. Jim H orn:NahnCee – If others didn’t procreate, what would you do when you get older and can’t create everything yourself? Specifically, the trailing edge of humanity would no longer have products to sustain them. All the self-accumulated savings would be of little use in a population that isn’t being replaced.
Unless you’re *truely* self-sufficient. In which case economic transactions aren’t a concern – including air transportation and, for that matter, access to the Internet…
Sep 28, 2009 - 1:19 pm 23. Christina Ethridge:I do have an issue with the in-flight entertainment… not just for my children, but for me too. Some of it is offensive. I don’t want to see male strippers (especially on a crowded plane), I don’t want to watch violence, gore, language and subjects I find offensive, etc. I would be appalled to take my children on some of these flights with in-flight entertainment (thank goodness it’s only been me traveling).
I travel domestically 4-6 times a year and every plane I have been on in the last 3 years that has had in-flight entertainment have shared screens (not personal screens) and the whole flight gets to see the same thing.
Sep 28, 2009 - 5:07 pm 24. Clayton E. Cramer:When even self-described (I think) Conservatives express disdain for children and public moral decency, I have to scratch my head in wonder. What is wrong with this world?
1. Not everyone that posts comments here is a conservative, or even a libertarian.
2. Part of what often causes people to end up as libertarians, not conservatives, is disdain for traditional morality. Not always; I went through a libertarian phase, because I was under the delusion that in the absence of any governmental encouragement, most people would lean towards a relatively traditional moral code, and even if not, it didn’t much matter, because what other people do doesn’t necessarily have that much influence on others. Living in the San Francisco Bay Area for a few years cured me of that delusion!
Trying to raise kids in such a culture isn’t easy. Some parents were providing pot and alcohol to their junior high age kids. (I talked to a drug rehab counselor there who was treating second graders with marijuana dependency problems.) Parents were so busy trying to be friends to their children that they wouldn’t think of violating their privacy–and so there were eighth graders who would invite all their friends over for group sex in the bedroom while the parents were home. (For a while, there were lots of very young girls pushing baby strollers around Rohnert Park.) Smart kids were dropping out of high school, just waiting for their parents to die so that they could inherit the wealth.
Worst of all, the dominant culture wasn’t content with just living this way and leading others astray; there was enormous pressure, sometimes including violence, against kids from traditional morality families: join us, or you will get hurt.
Sep 29, 2009 - 5:38 am 25. David:I think the problem is that people in the US don’t know how to handle sex. In Europe, they allow kids to see most everything and their children have more morals than ours ever thought of. Perhaps you should get rid of the moral attitude and let everyone alone. Then teach your children life lessions based on what is seen and observed.
Sep 29, 2009 - 11:20 am 26. JAM:Sorry Clayton, although I can sympathize with your point of view, I can’t bring myself to agree with you. I recently flew from NY to Hawaii on United and saw the movie The Proposal in flight – and what was more offensive to me than the male stripper scene in the movie was the two 6 year olds sitting behind me constantly kicking my seat and grabbing my headrest for 10 hours while their mother was doing absolutely nothing about it.
Although I agree with your premise that highly offensive content such as gratuitous torture should not be shown on an airplane, I am amazed that an inverted penis joke and a tame “stripper” scene in a lame movie actually prompted you to write this article. Whereas graphic torture is objectively offensive, the two scenes you mentioned can be considered subjectively offensive by the prudish of prudes.
You also failed to mention that the audio can only be accessed via headphones (or maybe you did but I just glazed over).
Also if you are so concerned about the in-flight movie, the airlines have given you the ability to become an informed consumer. Simply go to this site and you will see a full list of the in flight entertainment on all United Airline flights. If you need further assistance in determining the content of the movie a website called Google may offer additional help. This is America, and for now we are still free, exercise your capitalistic power by choosing an airline that has individual entertainment devices, or chooses movies of your liking.
I know pre-planning your travel plans based on the inflight movie may seem trivial and overreactive, but then again so was your article.
Sep 29, 2009 - 5:43 pm 27. JAM:By the way I forgot to mention for anyone who has not seen The Proposal (I am guessing all of you) the “stripper” scene is so ridiculous and mild it would be impossible for any child to construe a sexual connotation from it, especially with the inability to hear the audio. It was a silly scene that a small child would see only as a silly non fit man jumping around on a stage (they see more at the beach than in this scene), and in my opinion was perhaps the only comedic device in the movie that made is the least bit entertaining.
And just to reiterate, you were not captive on that flight – United gave you the ability to review the inflight entertainment before you booked the flight on their website, you chose to no explore that option. It is your fault for not pursuing, with the same level of due diligence to shield your children from this movie, that you expect United to do by not showing it in the first place.
I have no problem with family values or family friendly entertainment, but I believe in personal responsibility foremost. If what you experience is so offensive you have been given the tools to make informed decisions to avoid it without ruining the entertainment of everyone else.
I believe my viewpoint on this issue is in both accord with being a conservative as it is with being a staunch believer in personal freedoms.
I respect your concern but do not agree with your remedy.
Sep 29, 2009 - 7:54 pm 28. Clayton E. Cramer:By the way I forgot to mention for anyone who has not seen The Proposal (I am guessing all of you) the “stripper” scene is so ridiculous and mild it would be impossible for any child to construe a sexual connotation from it, especially with the inability to hear the audio. It was a silly scene that a small child would see only as a silly non fit man jumping around on a stage (they see more at the beach than in this scene), and in my opinion was perhaps the only comedic device in the movie that made is the least bit entertaining.
I agree that without the audio, it would be less clear, but the sexual connotations of the exotic dancer are still pretty obvious. It says quite a bit about your sense of humor that was “the only comedic device” that you found entertaining.
It is your fault for not pursuing, with the same level of due diligence to shield your children from this movie, that you expect United to do by not showing it in the first place.
If you had read what I wrote, I never mentioned having any children with me. I didn’t bother to check because I didn’t have any children on the flight. (Mine are now adults.)
Whereas graphic torture is objectively offensive, the two scenes you mentioned can be considered subjectively offensive by the prudish of prudes.
Why is graphic torture objectively offensive, while leering sexual content is not? Other than your confusion of your morals (torture bad, sex good) with an objective standard?
I think the problem is that people in the US don’t know how to handle sex. In Europe, they allow kids to see most everything and their children have more morals than ours ever thought of. Perhaps you should get rid of the moral attitude and let everyone alone. Then teach your children life lessions based on what is seen and observed.
I’m not so sure that your statement is true. Reading Theodore Dalrymple’s descriptions of working in a Britain as a doctor, about the only thing that they are doing better is starting kids on birth control earlier. His description of the excuses that police have for not doing anything about child prostitution on the streets are pretty chilling.
Sep 30, 2009 - 9:55 pm 29. Clayton E. Cramer:I believe my viewpoint on this issue is in both accord with being a conservative as it is with being a staunch believer in personal freedoms.
Conservative != libertarian. The American tradition is not libertarian–or we wouldn’t have a long history of laws that seek to promote public morality. Laws discouraging alcohol consumption. Laws prohibiting adultery, premarital sex, homosexuality, polygamy, obscene publications and entertainments, etc.
Argue if you want that these laws are a bad idea. But that’s a libertarian argument, not a conservative one.
Sep 30, 2009 - 9:58 pm 30. Rob H:Oh shut up Cramer. Maybe parents should be responsible for what their children are watching. I am not interested in having my viewing edited just because little Johnny might switch to a channel and see someone naked. Get a life you pain.
Sep 30, 2009 - 10:34 pm 31. JAM:If you had read what I wrote, I never mentioned having any children with me. I didn’t bother to check because I didn’t have any children on the flight. (Mine are now adults.)
I figured as much after reading your responses in the comments section, however, the parents who you are speaking up for, if any on the flight were offended (which I highly doubt), had the opportunity to do so, so you outrage on their behalf is unwarrented.
BTW, were you offended? If yes, well then you had the opportunity to ovoid the flight by checking the inflight movie on the website, if no, well then leave it up to the parents on the flight to fight their own fight if so inclined(and be wrong).
You just strike me as hyper sensitive. Leering sexual content? You have to be kidding me. You make it sound like you flew Clockwork Orange Airlines. There was no nudity, the scene was tame (and United gave all parents on the flight the chance to review the movie selection before booking), and the audio of The Office would not be accessible to the children on the flight unless the parents allowed them to do so (the penis joke would have gone unnoticed). Your points are invalid. Sorry.
Oct 1, 2009 - 11:08 am 32. JAM:Please ignore my typos in my last post, I know how easily offended you are.
And the American tradition is not finite; rather it’s the totality of practices over the course of time. The Great Experiment took place over 100 years after the founding of the country, was it the American tradition at the time? Our founding fathers were all brewers, public morality changes with the public’s mood. But I guess if we could all go back a hundred years there would be nary an offensive scene for our children to witness. Are you in favor of all the morality laws you cited? Slavery was a tradition as well, should we hold on to that as well? was that a conservative value?
I am somewhere between a conservative (not a prude, there is a difference) and a libertarian. If they played Sex and the City on the plane I would agree with you it would be inappropriate, however, even if they did you and everyone else has the opportunity to look up what is playing and take personal responsibility in avoiding it.
Oct 1, 2009 - 11:43 am 33. edna:Clayton: You are perfectly right in opposing unsuitable movies. Such offensive stuff as is put out in much public view is uncalled for. This includes billboards, bus advertisements, etc. Thank you for speaking out.
Oct 3, 2009 - 11:31 am