United Airlines train crew to stop passengers watching porn on planes

Airlines have been forced to come up with strategies to deal with inappropriate material on planes. Photo / Daniel McCullough, Unsplash

It's an unusual in-flight issue that's become such a problem, airlines have been forced to come up with strategies to deal with it.

And that issue is passengers who watch porn mid-flight.

Airlines are reporting an increasing number of passengers who watch X-rated content on their personal devices on flights, sometimes in front of children.

Now, in an extraordinary step, major American carrier United Airlines is giving its cabin crew extra training to help stop passengers watching porn on planes.

The airline was forced to invest in the extra training after it briefly made the US National Centre on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) 2019 "Dirty Dozen List", which names and shames companies that "facilitate sexual exploitation" in the United States.

United was the only airline to make the list.

Would you like porn with those pretzels? @Delta didn’t address passenger who was watching porn last night, so I did. Extremely explicit material in plain view and I’ve researched MANY other similar cases where airlines are taking a backseat on complaints, how is this okay? pic.twitter.com/vDWtR1B2E8

— Angela Blair (@AngelaZatopek) December 11, 2017

The NCOSE said there was a "sexually hostile environment" on board because of people watching porn on board.

"In recent years, incidents have soared of passengers viewing hardcore pornography on their personal devices (even in front of children) in tight, closed quarters, leaving fellow passengers and flight crew feeling unsafe, emotionally triggered and victim to sexual harassment," NCOSE said.

"Many reports expressed that United Airlines' flight attendants appeared to be particularly ill-suited for these situations."

United Airlines said it would commit to help flight attendants stamp down on in-flight porn watching.

United cabin crew have had to receive special training to deal with the problem. Photo / Jason Leung, Unsplash

"Sexual harassment, inappropriate behaviour, intimidation or predation have absolutely no place anywhere in our society — including, and especially, in our industry and on our aircraft," the airline said, according to Fox Business.

"In 2018, we strengthened our training for flight attendants to recognise, 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 recognise the need to continue the discussion among all of our work groups to further ensure that our policies reflect our values and safeguard those travelling with us."

United has now been removed from the Dirty Dozen list.