The woman has been a victim of bad experience on the plane when a man started touching her when she was sleeping. "This policy should not be billed as having anything to do with the idea that "men sexually assault," but should be associated with the comfort of grown men and young women in terms of the physical proximity that makes everyone comfortable."
Interestingly the policy has attracted lot of comments and attention. People approach the policy from their own experiences and viewpoints and hence what they contribute gives us a deeper insight into the issue. This policy has already been implemented by some other airlines including Air New Zealand. One person comments that it is rather unfair to women to make them sit next to children: "When Air New Zealand started this policy, many locals pointed out that this discriminated against women too. Who wants to sit next to a whiny kid? No man will have to any more, but if you're a woman, tough."
Steve Kelner, a regular commentator, posts some statistics as well to indicate that this policy is completely nonsensical. He makes use of some previous statistics and feels that even if 86% of all molesters are males, we must find out how many of them do such things on a plane. He says he has traveled frequently and has never observed any abnormal behavior: There are millions of people who fly every day, as Patrick Smith notes in his Ask the Pilot column. Personally, I've flown hundreds of thousands of miles and NEVER observed anything like this occurring at all. If it is 86% of.0000000001% of passengers, why are we pursuing this nonsensical policy?"
MWise also speaks against the policy as it is. She is of the view that if people want to protect their children, they should not let them fly alone and must sit next to them. "It is _your_ responsibility to look after _your_ kid. If you want to protect your child, then travel with them and sit in the...
Not all men are child molesters, and not all women are care givers."
Sarah has been a flight attendant herself and feels that this policy doesn't make sense because in her long career she hardly ever witnessed anything suspicious. "I've been a flight attendant for almost 10 years. In all that time I've had only one flight where someone has been suspicious in this way, and most flight attendants have never, ever had such an issue. Sure it's one time too many, but considering all the seating issues we have on planes, to make such precautions for one possible issue out of perhaps a million - is silly. We might as well prohibit men seating next to children in movie theaters, other public transportation, public gatherings...I could go on but others have well made that point." Sarah is right when she says that this policy could complicate things because then you might have to restrict males from sitting next to children in public transport and movie theaters. In fact I feel this is a perfectly logical thing to do.
The thing is that it is not always possible to make this situation ideal. It is definitely very important to protect our children so I suggest that while the policy must be there, it should also be made mandatory that no child would fly alone. Children must either fly with a parent or there should be a separate section for them closer to the flight attendants so they can fly in peace. Children can also be at risk in other public places, granted but these places are not always controlled by a company that can take such decisions. Any responsible company would want to take all necessary measures to ensure that its customers are safe. And hence this policy should be hailed.
Airlines ban men from sitting next to kids: http://letters.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/2006/11/28/children/view/index1.html?show=all
