Do Airport Body Scanners Break Child Porn Laws?!

LONDON – Since the failed bombing of a Detroit-bound flight on Christmas Day, officials in the United States, Canada, Britain and the Netherlands have called for new advanced full-body scanners to be used on all passengers. But privacy campaigners on both sides of the Atlantic are warning that the personnel operating these machines – which see through travelers' clothing, making it easier to identify explosives and weapons – could be charged under child pornography laws if they scan anyone under the age of 18.

Please read more of this article....

Those concerns last month led British officials to abandon plans to body-scan all travelers during a 12-month trial of the technology at Manchester airport. They will only scan adults until the legal situation is clarified. U.K. authorities made that amendment after a protest by advocacy groups Action on Rights for Children and Privacy International. They claimed that these machines, if used on minors, would breach the U.K.'s 1978 Protection of Children Act, which says it is illegal to take an indecent photo or "pseudo-photograph" of a child.

The key word in the 1978 piece of legislation is "take." According to Simon Davies, director of Privacy International, "Child protection laws criminalize the taking of images of a revealing nature of young people." Even though the $150,000 scanners wipe the naked pictures after they have appeared on screen, says Davies, security staff could still be prosecuted for creating the image. "It's irrelevant how long these images are kept for," he says, "the fact that they were captured in the first place is the offense.

Don't Forget To Subscribe