Has it really come to this? American Airlines' flight attendants are asking their employer to block access to pornographic websites from its new in-air Internet service, as they are concerned about abuses of the system by randy passengers.

Can you imagine? Sadly, I can. From time to time this has already been an issue, say flight attendants, with passengers that have printed or pre-recorded video matter. But opening up the skies to the Internet obviously presents a far wider opportunity for airborne porn: Now you don't have to plan ahead to bring your adult material on the plane, it's right there whenever you, ahem, need it.

The issue now becomes whether installing filters is a prudent idea, as it opens up questions of censorship and "how far" is OK for the company to block. Is it OK to shop for bikinis in the air? Read about disturbing medical conditions? It's the same kind of issues that have plagued libraries and other keepers of public Internet access terminals, only you can't simply ask someone to leave the building when you're at 30,000 feet.

Right now things work on a case by case basis and at the discretion of the flight attendants, and that would probably be fine going forward. But flight attendants are not out of line asking management to ward off problems before they start, if for no other reason than to avoid uncomfortable situations with passengers. Potential legal situations could also arise from passengers who felt harassed by exposure to inappropriate images being viewed by other passengers.

Should airlines proactively limit web access, and, if so, how far should they go? Sound off in the comments!

LINK: American Air Attendants Urge Filters to Bar Web Porn