Delta and American: NO PORN FOR YOU!

Bowing to pressure from flight attendants and, reportedly, customers, American Airlines has said it will soon be blocking access to pornographic websites on its new Aircell in-flight Internet access service. Delta announced a similar plan earlier this month.

American says it will work with the provider to set up the filter. No timeline for implimenting the filtering technology has been announced. One has to imagine it won't take long.

Naturally, privacy and civil rights advocates are already criticizing the move. Filters always tend to cast a very wide net, taking with them plenty of non-pornographic content while missing sites that many will find offensive. It's the gray areas -- YouTube, personal blogs, medical information sites -- where things get really tricky. And of course, there's invariably the question of whether filtering will extend to violence, "hate speech," and other frequently-censored content.

Well, if nothing else, American has probably inadvertantly launched a new diversion for bored fliers traveling across the country: "Beat the Filter," where buddies try to see who can slip some adult content past the censor first. Loser buys the next round of drinks!