New Body Scanners Breaking Child Porn Laws?

In the haste to get full body scanners up and running at the British airports, there is a threat that these will break child protection laws. Full body scanners create images that are not suitable for children. 

Several campaigners are already fighting against this. The images generated by these full body scanners are rather graphic in nature. Campaigners say that  such images can be compared to a ‘virtual strip-search‘.  This is why, they have asked for measures to protect the privacy of passengers involved. The worry of many is that this sudden and ‘instant’ introduction of scanners can cause racial and religious bias. What  the government needs to do now is to follow a rational approach and be sensitive too. Else, racial and religious bias can take over, causing dire consequences.

The American system of using full body scanners confirms that the images will be deleted immediately after the scan. But skeptics fear that if these scans are used on celebrities, any unusual observations in the images can become an ‘irresistible pull’ for some employees. Not to mention the fact that media can still figure out ways to get such images and have a field trip.

Full body scanner- Not for under 18 year olds (for now) 

A 12-month trial of these full body scanners was conducted at the Manchester airport. The results revealed that in some cases, genitalia and breast enlargements were also visible. A Manchester airport spokesman did however confirm, that until the legal situation was clarified, people below 18 years of age would be exempted. One thing to noted here is that about 500 people did voluntarily take part in the exercise. The overall feedback has been positive.

As several countries worldwide plan to have such full body scanners at their airports, this needs very serious consideration. Apart from the ‘child porn’ problem, racial and religious profiling can become such a serious issue, that a measure to protect the civilians can cause more harm than anything else. Steps need to be taken to ensure that people are not victimized, just because they belong to specific ethnic/religious backgrounds.

For now, the Department for Transport in Britain confirmed that the entire ‘child porn’ problem is being discussed. Gordon Brown has already announced that a ‘gradual’ introduction would be the best way to go.

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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/jan/04/new-scanners-child-porn-laws