This was an interesting press release to land in my inbox…

United training flight attendants to spot inflight porn

The National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) is commending United Airlines for their improved in-person flight attendant training, including addressing the issue of passengers watching pornography on planes.

According to NCOSE, the training started in January 2020. However, United issued a statement suggesting that they’ve offered increased training on “sexual harassment of any kind” since 2018. They don’t specifically reference inflight porn use, though. Here’s their statement:

The safety of our customers and colleagues is our top priority. Sexual harassment, inappropriate behavior, intimidation or predation have absolutely no place anywhere in our society — including, and especially, in our industry and on our aircraft. In 2018, we strengthened our training for flight attendants to recognize, address and respond to instances of sexual harassment of any kind on board our aircraft and will continue to adapt and enhance this training moving forward. We recognize the need to continue the discussion among all of our work groups to further ensure that our policies reflect our values and safeguard those traveling with us.

According to NCOSE, in recent years incidents of passengers watching hardcore pornography on personal devices while on planes has increased greatly, “leaving fellow passengers and flight crew feeling unsafe, emotionally triggered, and victim to sexual harassment.”

What are the signs of watching inflight porn?

I’d be curious to know what exactly training looks like for spotting inflight porn use. I don’t see this mentioned anywhere — I’m not sure if that’s intentional so that people don’t try to get sneaky, though it also seems like this could help other people spot it happening.

I would assume in general some of the following would be signs:

Repeatedly looking around the cabin (especially behind) nervously

Angling your personal device away from everyone else

Perhaps using blankets to, ahem, cover some things up

I do find the focus specifically on pornography to be surprising, since I would assume an even bigger issue would be people either creeping on others from a distance, or even making unwanted advances. I’m sure there’s some overlap in terms of “clues.”

Anyway, if anyone actually knows what the training is like and can share, please post in the comments section.

United Airlines was on “Dirty Dozen” list in 2019

What makes this particularly interesting is that in 2019, NCOSE put United Airlines on their “Dirty Dozen” list, naming 12 mainstream contributors to sexual exploitation in America.

United Airlines was the only airline on the list, and was joined by companies like Amazon, Google, Massage Envy (ouch), Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, and Twitter.

Why was United Airlines on this list in 2019, over other airlines? According to NCOSE, United Airlines crews had received ineffective training due to consistent failures in addressing sexually harassing actions, speech, and pornography use. As they explained at the time:

United Airlines appears to be chronically ill-prepared to address the growing problem of pornography on airplanes and the ensuing culture of sexual harassment that this fosters. While most airlines have a policy on paper against in-flight pornography use, they are not adequately training their in-flight crews or support staff to ensure they A) are consciously aware the policy exists or B) know how to enforce it. When this lack of clarity and training exists, United aircrews have resorted to giving alleged “hush” money or even openly joking about a case of sexual harassment. This leaves passengers vulnerable and isolated to endure a toxic sexual environment without recourse.

Bottom line

It’s good to hear that United Airlines is improving when it comes to training flight attendants on issues like this. This does seem like an area where airlines perhaps haven’t historically put in the effort they should have, so it’s nice to see some airlines catching up.

Have you ever witnessed someone watching pornography inflight?