AITA for watching GoT on an airplane?

A Reddit user recounts a situation where they were watching Game of Thrones on their tablet during a long-haul flight. A woman seated two rows behind them complained, saying her young child could see the explicit content and asked them to stop watching. The user refused, feeling it was their right to choose their entertainment, but now wonders if they were wrong for not considering the child nearby.

‘ AITA for watching GoT on an airplane?’

Two days ago, I was on a long-haul flight. I was sitting in an aisle seat. Since I haven’t seen Games of Thrones yet, I was looking forward to binge watch the first season. I made myself comfortable and set up my tablet. An hour or two into watching, the woman two rows behind me tipped on my shoulder and told me that I need to turn it off immediately.

A little bit confused, I asked why. She told me that her young son could see the show playing on my tablet and it’s totally not suited for such young children because of the s** and violence involved in it. While I agree with that, I told her that I’m not going to turn it off. She then basically told me that I am an a**hole for not considering other people around me. Is she right?. ​

These are the responses from Reddit users:

Lord_Void_of_Evil −  NTA. Certainly, GoT is not appropriate for a child but this is a rather unreasonable request. She is two rows behind you it is not like it is just playing in the kid’s face. She could have swapped seats with the kid or distracted him. If all else failed she could have politely asked if you would mind angling your tablet so he couldn’t see it. Instead she jumped straight to telling you that you \*had\* to turn it off. That is entitlement right there. The world does not revolve around her child.

AdmiralAckbar2 −  ESH – don’t watch something with graphic s** scenes in public. When did that stop being common sense? But also, if you are asking someone to stop doing something you don’t like, even if it should be common knowledge not to do it, ask politely. No one wants to do what a rude person asks them to do, even if they realize they were wrong.

Also, if you insist on watching game of thrones on a plane at least put a sweatshirt in the cracks between the seats and angle the screen so that no one else has to watch it. Finally, for those telling the mom to tell the kid to just not look – what the hell? Have you ever interacted with a kid? Tell a kid not to do something and they are going to find a way to do it. For the record I watch and love game of thrones. And I can totally relate to wanting to binge it on a plane. In my opinion that is just very inappropriate.

REDDIT_IN_MOTION −  panicky alive rain practice money ancient retire fly office air.

itsabeautifulsky −  YTA, . this is one of those cases where being kind and considerate would have made you kind and considerate and disregarding other people for your own reasons makes you selfish and inconsiderate. I personally would agree that as a rule, in public, people shouldn’t watch gory/s**ual content out in the open.

She made a polite request and you decided that watching GOT was more important than what discomfort people around you are feeling. So yeah, people are gonna bash the mom but from your own story you come off as more of an a**hole than her.

InterestingPoint6 −  YTA This is another case of reddit vs real life. Reddit is all about personal choice and freedom, but the reality is that that show isn’t appropriate for young viewers for a reason. And y’all are in an enclosed space.
That mom had no real way of keeping her child from watching. Other commenters– What was she supposed to do? Cover his eyes for the rest of the flight? I work with children. Telling them to not look at something basically ensures that they will look at it forever.

Blab411 −  NTA. I flew from Paris to Arizona and watched half a season of GoT. Why? Because it was provided by the airline. If it bothers her so much she could switch seats with her child so they can’t see.

LurkersGoneLurk −  I’d feel creepy watching s** scenes on public transportation. Just tone deaf, imo.

SB-1 −  YTA. It’s basic good manners not to show adult images on a screen in public.

Snappylobster −  YTA, watching a dwarf get sucked off by two medieval fantasy hookers isn’t really something you should be watching on a plane and I think it’s pretty obvious for any reasonably smart adult to know that.
I’ve seen a lot of NTA here but in real life I don’t think that’s okay.

robinhood125 −  YTA. Don’t watch R rated stuff in public where kids can see it. Kids of course are going to watch something they’re not allowed to. If the kid was right next to you, would you feel the same? Either way, the kid can apparently still see it from two rows back well enough that the mom could recognize it was GoT.