It occasionally happens, unfortunately. About six months ago in CE, the crew member saw a child seated next to me with his laptop still on the tray table and playing with it, well after the announcement to turn all electronic devices off and the aircraft was moving, but did not say anything to him. I assume the crew member thought that he was about to put it away.

As this child showed no sign of putting away his laptop, I was a bit concerned that this child would hurt himself if we had come to a sudden stop, I told him that he needed to put his laptop away for his own safety. I was not in the mood for administering first aid for semi-self-inflicted injury*, but I was not able to ask the crew to do this because they had already been strapped in for take off, so I had to ask him to put it away myself. Thankfully the child obliged without argument.

Sometimes you do need to intervene, although it's not always easy, particularly when the person is not seated next to you, or when they might react badly to your comment, or in case it creates a bad atmosphere for the rest of your flight, so I completely sympathise with not speaking up as well.


*For the avoidance of doubt or potential accusation of being a mean person for not wanting to administer first aid on someone if I felt that the person is even partially at fault, obviously, I would certainly have done so if he did get injured, regardless of fault!