Captain Schmidt

That's just a little paranoid, don't you think?

MPH1980

It never ceases to surprise me the people who a) publish their full address (or close to it!) and b) have their entire timeline on 'public' on Facebook.

And yes - there are people who do searches for exactly this stuff.

M.

SteveF

Do people still actually use those computers anyway? I thought that almost everyone traveled with at least one WiFi-enabled internet-capable device. In fact, come on, how many do you carry? I count four in my carry-on (and I don't even work anymore):

- An Asus Ultrabook
- An iPhone 5
- An iPad Mini
- An iPod Touch

And my wife has another two in hers, just in case none of those work.

LTN Phobia

Seconded. Everyone should be considerate towards other lounge users and hand over the computer to whoever is waiting after 15 min or so.

Indeed. I thought anyone under the age of 18 needed to be supervised in the BA lounge?

orbitmic

I agree with you, LTNPhobia and FrancisA. To me, the 'children' part is rather irrelevant but monopolising a lounge computer for 2 1/2 hour when some other people seem to need it (if you noticed the other people, so should have the parents) is definitely a lack of both courtesy and common sense. I'd say one should use it for 'urgent' things for about 20 minutes and then leave it to someone else.

I also agree that parents leaving 7 year olds unsupervised in the lounge is completely off. It is not a baby-sitter service and it involves genuine issues of legal responsibility if something goes wrong (think the occasional abandoned luggage and terminal evacuation for instance) especially if they did not tell the lounge staff they were leaving the kids (which I guess they probably didn't as said staff would have most likely told them not to).

Paralytic

A simple sign will fix things:

jacobitetraveller

to me the "children " part of this is very relevant for two reason

1) children of that age should not be using a public computer unsupervised

2) the parents should not have left the lounge leaving their children in the lounge alone (whether on the computer or not )

this is a simple case of bad parenting and lack of social skills of the parents involved

we cant really expect children to behave in a responsible manner when this is the example they are shown

soapbox

My children have access to the lounge by virtue of their own status (they travel a lot) and usually because we have purchased a premium cabin fare. So my view is that they are as entitled as anyone else to use the facilities of the lounge.

That said, monopolising the computers is not acceptable behaviour and I would usually give them 30mins maximum before making them do something more useful, such as reading a book!

We also heave sufficient wifi devices to keep them occupied so they wouldn't usually be on the computers in any event.

I rarely see anyone using the computers these days, adult or child. I think you practically have to crank them up to get them moving in some of the lounges, they are is out of date!

fripperies

Not restricted to under-18s. My wife believes I need supervising in lounges. In fact everywhere.

re the kids on the PCs. Kids, adults, the user's age is irrelevant. Everyone is entitled to use public equipment, no-one should monopolise it. Common courtesy surely. If you're annoyed that someone is abusing their right you need to indicate that, politely and non-confrontationally, at the time.

crazy8534

Isn't leaving a couple of 7 year old children on their own child abandonment or something? In a place where alcohol is freely available?

If you were a health professional who saw a child who had been injured (even in a minor way) in such a situation you would certainly be within routine practice to refer to child protective services.

Barnaby100

I take it you dont do a lot of CP referrals personally?

crazy8534

Are you moaning about the work involved or saying you think it is acceptable behaviour?!

T8191

Surely the whole topic is about reasonable behaviour in a public environment. Small <pick an age range> children don't have the social skills to do that. Nor do some adults.

missdimeaner

Love it !
I like children.....but I couldn't eat a whole one

I would have more issues with the parents, not supervising the children and leaving them alone.

Zaynab

Great comment; that would be my question too. A friendly "could I use the computer for a minute" would have likely solved the problem.

Having received an ugly virus (the electronic kind) through a computer in a hotel once, I steer clear from these machines. I know several people who have been victim to keyloggers stealing access to their Gmail account.

Ofcourse we can trust BA to install good antivirus programs (can we?), but better safe than sorry anyway.

Re: these computers are for adults (in another post): since we all pay different prices for the same tickets, shouldn't we receive a sticker with the price per mile printed on it, so we can assess who should be more equal than the others in the lounge?