We’ve got nothing against babies and young children, but traveling long haul near a crying tot or having your seat back constantly kicked could be bothersome after some time.

Japan Airlines has quietly introduced a new feature allowing passengers to see where babies between the ages of 8 days and 2 years old are sitting on a flight. The feature was first discovered by Twitter user @dequinix, which later gathered quite a bit of attention along the way.

According to Japan Airlines, once the family of young traveler(s) selects a seat, a little baby icon shows up on the seat map. Other passengers booking flights can then have a more informed decision as to whether they want to sit near the young child or not.

In certain circumstances, the indicator will not working including:

Seats booked as part of a tour or using award tickets

Seats selected through means other than the JAL website

Equipment changes can also result in the information not being displayed correctly.

Interestingly enough, the feature isn’t exactly new as All Nippon Airways also recently introduced the feature.

Rahat’s tweet drew quite a bit of attention, with clear lines between those who were for and against the idea.

“Yes @qatarairways you definitely need to take note. We had 3 screening babies in row 17 on the LAX-DOH flight! The screamed non-stop the whole flight. The flight crew never once tried to assist the inept parents,” said user @starmagi.

@WilkinsonPRLtd said “Absolutely agree with you Rahat, screaming babies are not welcome anywhere…and especially on long haul flights! There’s no escape from the noise, but noise cancelling headphones do help”

“I think this is great. I understand families travel which is fine, but it is nice to have the option to try and sit away. On a flight to Madrid 5 days ago a small child stood on his seat in front of me and threw a metal toy car at my friends face. Kids are dangerous,” said @LAJFarrell.

Others were not too pleased about the idea, reminding everyone that not all children cry during flights, and that we were young once.

@thestrawbster said that “We’re all young once! All these people who can’t stand sitting next to young kids need to get over themselves- try and be considerate and realise that there are worse things in the world than sitting next to a crying child.”

@gsundar also chimed in saying “They are babies as we all once were. We need to learn tolerance or will soon start needing a map of seat locations for mouth breathers, droolers, farters, drunks, and perhaps a lot more things in life. What ever happened to life’s surprises 😉 ?”

Having the feature gives passengers some choices. At the end of the day, you don’t have to brag about not choosing to sit next to a child. We also do agree that not all children are troublesome, and for those who make a bit of noise, it’s obviously not intentional. The real problem comes when grown adults start acting like children 😉

[Featured Photo: TaniaVdB/Pixabay]