There have been many interesting debates on the use of Airport scanners. I work in Child Protection and have been asked many times for information on this subject in regards to scanning Under 18s.
The media have been less than helpful with the information they have been giving the public and in my opinion have been causing alarm and have not been supportive in their reporting.
I would like to get on an aeroplane and arrive alive at my chosen destination. If that means I have to be scanned then so be it. If it means my children have to be scanned then go ahead I give my full consent, although it is not required.
I contacted the Department of Transport and they replied this morning. I am satisfied with their explanation as to how the scanners are operated and would like to share their response with you.
You can also view their Code of Practice as to how they will operate and I think it is a very well written piece of information.
The use of body scanners for children is compatible with the Protection of Children Act 1978. The use of scanners will be subject to the Codes of Practice developed by the DfT, other government departments and the aviation industry.
Screening staff will be situated at a location away from passengers so they will not be able to associate an image with a particular individual. The equipment deployed in airports does not have the capacity to save an image in any form.
I don't usually feel too strongly about measures of security, thinking generally that any small delay is worth it for our increased safety.
ReplyDeleteBut this has made me deeply uncomfortable. I would actively not fly from an airport with these scanners in. The government say that these images can't be captured. Right, so what if the image is needed as evidence for a court case, how does that work. All this coming from a government who has lost countless memory sticks with peoples personal data on them.
Are you seriously telling me that there won't be blokes ogling at the images of attractive naked women or laughing and sniggering to themselves at those of us with less fortunate bodyshapes. You say that they can't distinguish who's body it is from those in the line, hmmm, how do they know which one has the explosive device strapped to him then, it doesn't add up.
It's a violation, you might as well just strip search everyone and give them the rubber glove treatment, it's almost as stressful.
There must be a better way.
I'm sure there are alternative ways of checking people however I personally would rather go through a scanner than be patted down as has happened to me in the US in 2002 as I took an internal one way flight as did the 9/11 bombers. I found that very intrusive. But that is just my opinion.
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