I’m a single guy (Hello ladies…) and I’ve also sat next to an unaccompanied minor on an airplane without issue. But if I were a passenger on Australian carrier Qantas, I would have to switch seats with an adult woman because apparently my Y chromosome tags me, and all adult males, as a potential threat to children flying solo.
The Sydney Morning Herald has the story of a man who was mortified when Qantas forced him to change his seat because he had the misfortune of being seated next to an unaccompanied minor.
He tells the paper he felt like he was viewed as a “kiddie fiddler” (which we assume has nothing to do with being a fiddle prodigy) for being called out in front of other passengers and asked to move because attendants had seated a 10-year-old girl next to him.
“After the plane had taken off, the air hostess thanked the woman that had moved but not me,” he explains, “which kind of hurt me or pissed me off a bit more because it appeared I was in the wrong, because it seemed I had this sign I couldn’t see above my head that said ‘child molester’ or ‘kiddie fiddler’ whereas she did the gracious thing and moved to protect the greater good of the child.”
The man, a nurse who is required to go through period checks to ensure that he is suited for working with child patients, asked to speak to a Qantas manager when the plane landed but was instead given a comment card to fill out.
While the airline didn’t get back to him until after his story began to catch fire in the social media sphere, he says he “was just told it was the policy and it was what people who send unaccompanied minors on flights want and it’s not their fault, which I disagreed with at the time.”
A rep for the airline confirmed the policy to the Morning Herald:
“Qantas’s policy is consistent with other airlines around the world and is designed to minimise risk… The policy reflects parents’ concerns and the need to maximise the child’s safety and well-being.
“In most instances unaccompanied children are allocated seats prior to boarding and there are no issues.
“On the rare occasion where a male passenger is seated next to an unaccompanied child, airlines need to take care when moving passengers to ensure this is done discreetly and respectfully.”
The nurse’s story comes hot on the heels of a similar situation on a Virgin Australia flight in April, during which a firefighter was moved after being seated next to two unaccompanied minors. That airline has said it is now reviewing its policy.
“I think it absolutely sucks,” says the nurse about the Qantas policy. “[I]t’s totally and utterly discriminatory in my mind. It’s a complete and utter generalization.”
Well, we know how he feels. But what about y’all:
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Statistically, a child is more likely to be molested by a relative or friend of the family than by a stranger. Create your airline policies accordingly.
So men are more likely to be pedophiles than women? Who thought that up? As a matter of fact it would appear that if they are roughly equal the airline is exposing the child to an increased risk. Whereas the child is initially at risk on a one time basis it is put at a much higher risk when the attendant asks numerous women to volunteer. So if there are ten women asked the odds of a pedophile being put next to the kid are 10 times as much as the single man.
With all the female “teacher” touching male student stories as of late (FARK– there is one almost weekly, if not more often), unoccupied minors should be sitting next to noone, or maybe other minors.
It’s interesting to see how differently those situations are treated though.
Adult female + male child = Adam Sandler movie.
Adult male + female child = Lifetime Network movie.
And they both generally suck total ass.
I personally would lawyer-up and call for a 6-figure paycheck. This is pure sexism and discrimination.
Or another solution would be to offer a child-free flight, even at a premium. Most single people would think it’s worth it.
This is outside the US though. Almost every country on earth would offer little to no civil recourse in such an event. Even if you sued and won the award would be virtually nothing. That is why everyone LOVES to sue in the US if possible. Libel is virtually the only exception.
Next thing you know the U.S. airlines will make sure that only straight men are allowed to sit next to male children. The christians would love nothing more than to make sure that only straight people are allowed to sit next to children.
Admittedly, I did not take the time to google this fact, but aren’t convicted child molesters almost always heterosexual caucasian men? Statistically, that is.
Even if that were true, so what? If statistics show that most of the violent crime in NYC subways are comitted by blacks and hispanics, can I ask the MTA to designate a subway car where only whites and asians are allowed. ‘Cause you know, statisically I’m safer that way.
But you don’t say anything to Soco808. Interesting.
Yes, in fact they are and this statistic has
held up across vast amounts of time.
However, there is the case of -celibate-
-Catholic- priests and young boys and
athletic coaches and players at Big Ten universities,
um ONE Big Ten university.
Admittedly, I did not take the time to google this, but aren’t heterosexual caucasian men usually not child molesters? Statistically, that is.
A 19 hour flight is the perfect place to diddle a kid.
How about THIS: let the fare-paying adults have their seats and peace and quiet and stuff the drooling whining rugrats into a cargo bin and let them take their odds in with the luggage and mail and other junk down below.
Give them some cheap plastic chairs to sit in (easy to clean) and throw them some stale popcorn and water. No movie. No lights. Maybe pressurized air and heat. Who cares.
“Oh what about the children!!!???” What about the taxes I pay? What about the money I earn and spend on a plane ticket? I contribute to society. I have a job. I vote. Kids? They don’t DO anything. They don’t contribute. They take. They mooch. They leech. And now they want plane seats to themselves? To hell with this. Until kids grow up and earn a living and prove they are human beings worth giving a crap about, they really don’t deserve all this “what about the children” garbage.
But they’re fragile and stuff? So what. If they break, just have more of them. A lot of people have figured this out just fine and by the way they treat their kids, they place no more value on them than I do. Kids are hardly a scarce or precious resource.
No I don’t have nor want kids. I’m more glad than you are.
Oooh! good point. I don’t want to sit beside kids, anyway. Please let them sit by the crazy lady that talks too much.
gr, shk th bb. vrn shld b llttd n fr brtn nd dscnt n wre ct hngrs. [Moderator note: Troll]
“I’m more glad than you are.”
Not necessarily.
This is completely outrageous. Full stop.
It is so outrageous in fact that I am trembling with
anger and am unable to comment further. But of
course many on this blog will look skyward and mouth
“Thank you”.
There’s be plenty of cases of women having sex with underage boy and girls, isn’t this policy sexist?
The “thinking” behind this is flawed on so many levels. Like all men are child molesters. Like a marriage license prevents someone from being one. Like women cannot be child molesters. If you wanted to perfect this inane theory, you’d have to seat the unaccompanied minors in a bubble of protective empty seats so no other humans could interact with them.
Or you could just act rationally.
I don’t think a marriage license is going to spare men this indignity if they’re flying without a woman they can trade seats with. It’s absurd that half the adult population are considered a serious potential threat to the wellbeing of a child, especially when they’re in a small metal tube surrounded by the flight crew and hundreds of witnesses.
I agree with those who suggested a better policy would be to seat unaccompanied minors by the galley. This puts them in closer proximity to the flight crew, and the crew will have an easier job keeping tabs on them. Those seats can be some of the last assigned, and gender of the neighboring passengers shouldn’t be a factor at all.
I did a bit of research on this and it seems like it can be almost entirely prevented. One of the damning facts is that almost 100% of the cases involve males, so the airlines are not entirely wrong in their policy. However in the vast majority of cases the predator changes seats to be next to the minor. The person that is randomly assigned to be next to a minor is not likely to be a predator however the one that goes out of their way to sit next to one is very likely to be one. Especially if they do something unusual like moving from an aisle seat to a middle row seat.
The solution to me seems clear. Do not allow anyone to change seats to be next to a minor, regardless if they are male or female. After people are seated just check the tickets of people sitting next to minors. If that is not their assigned seat then ask them to move back to their original seat. If that is not possible then move the minor.
A simple policy like this should reduce cases of airplane molestation greatly and wouldn’t have the controversy of racial/sexual profiling.
Almost 100% of terrorist acts involve Muslims. So it would not be entirely wrong for airlines to not allow them to fly.
Please provide a link to data regarding cases of “airline molestation.” I mean other than that committed by the TSA
I really don’t get this. How exactly is a child in danger when flying in an aircraft that’s 32,000 feet off the ground? I really think Qantas (and Virgin in the previous mentioned case) are being way to over-cautious.
Occasionally pervs will take advantage of the fact that the child is unaccompanied and there’s no decent line of sight view among cramped rows of seats, and actually molest kids on the plane.
Not over-cautious to try to prevent that, but their methods here are bad. Move the kids to the front where attendants can keep an eye on them (and they can’t kick seats, the little…) instead of counting on female passengers to play impromptu babysitter all flight.
Personally, I don’t believe ANY adult should be permitted to sit with an unaccompanied minor.
Seats are already reserved for baby bassinets and persons with disabilities, and released a few hours before the flight for general seating if they aren’t needed. Airlines could easily do the same thing for UM seating.
I don’t believe any minor should be on a plane unaccompanied. I don’t send my kids down to the park on their own.
Unfortunately men are in a Catch-22 in this situation. If you move then you feel humiliated, but if you raise a stink and mention something like “isn’t this the seat that I paid for?” then you’ll either be consider belligerent and a threat to the flight which carries ejection and a potential terrorism red flag, or everyone will wonder WHY you insist on sitting next to a child…
I get what you’re saying. At least one commenter had a pretty legit reason for not wanting to be moved. He would have been placed in the middle seat of another row rather than his selected window seat. If this policy remains and I have to be relocated, I’d want to be moved to an equal or better seat. Still, the policy just sucks.
No one mentioned Jerry Sandusky, who was married and whose wife looked the other way for years. ANYONE can be a pervert, and limiting your restrictions to single males isn’t fair.
Of course unaccompanied minors shouldn’t be seated next to adults. Such a large number of minors, especially ones under the age of 5, act beastly on flights, I wonder how much worse an unaccompanied minor might act without parents/guardians to keep them in line.
They’ll be much safer if placed in Sky Kennels, hopefully the airlines would avoid accidentally releasing them onto the tarmac, but it’d be for the best for everyone. The parents could just put the sprog’s necessary supplies such as food, water, and toys in the crate, put on a TSA-approved padlock, and problem solved.
ha
a similar thing happened to me yesterday
i was waiting in line at the post office and didn’t have a single care in the world except for when it’d be my time to go up.
as im scanning the the cashier areas, i see a man give me a look from the corner of my eye
immediately he blurts out for his kid to come back.. so i start thinking to myself, “wtf, did i trigger that reaction”.
whatever i tell myself, i try to forget it, but i just can’t cause
the dad keeps yelling for his kid to get back to him every minute or so, usually only when hes by me. it pisses me off and i want to yell at the dad and say “who the phuck is going to try to take a kid with all these witnesses and camera’s, you dummy”, but i know it’d fall on deaf ears.
to add to my embarrassment, the damn kid starts following me as i’m leaving the cash register area, lol. god damn this sensationalist media to hell.
They should if they look like this guy…sometimes, profiling is a good idea…
http://forum.rickross.com/read.php?12,107232