[Shiara]

A step in the right direction:

Virgin policy change after male passenger was moved away from children

British Airways changes child seating policy after court case

[Shinrei]

Sinisdar Toste, on 10 August 2012 - 10:30 PM, said:

The only place where i can imagine this being a good policy is the Vatican.

So Battalion's snarky comment/picture gets 2 neg reps and this snarky comment (sans foto) get's to positive reps?

Oh, that's right, because it's ok to bash religion.*




*Yes, I know about the molestation and coverups, but that doesn't give me leave to post michael jackson jokes on the DB.

[Shinrei]

As for my opinion on this, I repped HD because he said what I was thinking.

We might as well OK airline policies which do not allow Muslims on planes.

Not terribly surprised this was OZ, considering they banned small-breasted pornstars because of pedophilia concerns. Is Australia a major haven for pedos or something?

[QuickTidal]

You don't assume random people to be criminals.

You don't. As a business.

I disagree wholeheartedly with such a terrible business practice.

For a far tamer example of the same type of practice. The biggest comic store in Toronto makes you check your bags at the counter...this is a two-fold fuckup...1. they assume I'm a thief and will steal from them, and 2. It shows a marked lack in the way they staff and monitor their store. You simply should never pre-suppose that a customer who comes into your place of business is going to break the law.

Shinrei is right, if you were to change "adult male" to any other description (be it sex, race or religion or whatever) then the outcry would be crazy.

In Canada (or at the very least on Air Canada), the policy in place is unattended minor's MUST be sat next to a flight attendant.

[McLovin]

QuickTidal, on 13 August 2012 - 01:42 PM, said:

You don't assume random people to be criminals.

You don't. As a business.

My beef is the false sense of security this generates. Because after all, if a predator were on a plane actively seeking to victimize someone, he could NEVER get to a kid he wasn't sitting next to, right? It's pure feel-good BS, that rakes in parent dollars while giving their kids ZERO added security. It's the appearance of doing something.

SO glad I don't have to fly very often.

[cerveza_fiesta]

I find the whole concept of this Virgin policy unbelievably idiotic. Even the policy QT mentioned at Air Canada (where minors sit with flight attendants) is idiotic if it's truly for protection against paedophiles. I mean, what if the flight attendant is a paedo himself? OH MAH GERD PAEDOS EVERYWHERE!!! Gimme a fucking break.

Set aside for a second the rights infringement argument, the percentages of paedos in the population...all that stuff. Think about the setting: An airplane. Full of mostly normal people. Unless every single person on the plane is a paedophile (and thus sympathetic to the hypothetical paedo guy's cause) what the hell is he going to get away with that he couldn't get away with in any other conceivable situation? I mean, the second he reaches over and starts jacking off the kid, he's going to get annihilated by every passenger within reach, not to mention getting arrested and thrown in prison the second the plane touches down.

Kids are all educated about "strangers" and largely know to call out if they feel threatened. Atop that, I'd venture most paedos are very secretive about what they do and would never risk exposure by acting out their fantasies in public. When you consider the vanishingly small chance of an airborne sexual assault, and the potential PR fallout from the protection mechanism itself (as the OP story demonstrates), it makes no sense that the airline would keep such a policy in place; it just doesn't achieve it's intended purpose.

[King Lear]

In any case, it's a bit hard on women to have to be the ones stick next to the damn kids all the time!

Besides, the vast majority of sexual abusers are known to their victims. If parents are worried about their kids a) don't let them fly alone if possible, or book the seat/s next to them as well, but in any case this whole 'all strange men are potential pedos' just perpetrates the false belief that most sexual attacks are done by strangers in (semi) public places.