While most providers of erotica intend for it to be enjoyed in the privacy of one's home, the rapid increase in the capabilities and deployment of technological devices, particularly on the mobile front, has led to an increase in the number of incidents in which bystanders are exposed to adult content in a public place. For some inadvertent viewers, it is while they are "trapped" next to someone on a bus, train or airplane — or even while simply waiting for the conveyance's arrival.
Hesse illustrated her story with the tale of a mom on a cross-country trip, who uncomfortably tried to shield her children from the adult cartoons a fellow traveler was enjoying. "Porn vibes. In public. Flooding the recycled air of the plane," Hesse wrote, summarizing what many see as an issue of privacy on both sides of the fence — where the rights of consumers to view the legal material of their choice must be balanced against the rights of those who do not wish to, or are legally prevented from viewing adult material.
"Like being exposed to the cigarette smoke of a nicotine addict on the street, people are inhaling secondhand smut," Hesse wrote.
Typically, it falls upon the employees of a given carrier to mediate disturbances and enforce company policies, but according to a couple of flight attendants Hesse quoted, the problem is not as common as some headlines make it seem, nor is the solution as difficult as some would suggest.
"You want to create the least amount of conflict possible at 30,000 feet," Association of Flight Attendants Communications Chairman Renee Foss told Hesse. "Maybe a free snack box would give the passenger something better to do."
Hesse is quick to point out that all public venues are susceptible to "secondhand smut," not just those limited to public transportation; but office environments, sporting arenas, coffee shops and more — it seems that these days, anywhere people gather, someone will feel comfortable enough to whip out their iPhone and watch a little porn.
"Perhaps this is the real problem: the increasingly blurred boundary between public and private," Hesse opined. "If we are so accustomed to burying our noses in tiny screens, carrying our entertainment in and out of the house, perhaps people are simply getting confused as to where they are."