Congressman Heath Shuler Hard at Work

Prompted by parents' complaints about sex and violence in inflight movies, two congressmen introduced legislation Tuesday calling for airlines to create kid-friendly zones on planes to shield them from violent images.
"The airlines have chosen to put our children in a situation that I don't feel comfortable with," said Rep. Heath Shuler, a North Carolina Democrat.
He and Republican Rep. Walter Jones, also from North Carolina, call their proposal the Family Friendly Flights Act.
The bill calls for the creation of sections on commercial flights where there would not be any publicly viewable movie screens. It would still allow airlines to show the movies they choose on big screens in other sections, or on individual seatback screens.
"How do you tell a 4-, 5-, 6-, 7-, 8-year-old, 'Don't look at the screen,' when it's basically all over the cabin?" Shuler said.
One of the parents who complained to Shuler was Katie Kelley, who said she was on a plane last February when an R-rated movie with "a lot of nudity" was shown. She said she was traveling without her children, ages 4 and 7, but was still bothered by the situation.
Andrew Whalen, a Shuler spokesman, said the bill is aimed at getting airlines to self-regulate for violence in movies because of medical evidence showing such images can harm children.