Full body scans at airports in Manchester exclude children

October 18, 2009 by Baby Chums
Filed under: News

Manchester Airport has legally excluded children from full body X-ray scans that sees passengers nude bodies through clothing. In the US the machines appear to have met little resistance as another, “anti-terrorism” measure.

The device, called, “Rapiscan” is a booth that passengers stand in while electromagnetic rays look through their clothing for hidden items like weapons and explosives and was launched last week at the U.K. airport.

Once inside the the booth, airport security staff are able to see the outline of the persons body through their clothing on computer monitors including genitalia and breasts. The Rapiscan machine is also sensitive enough that it can detect things like breast implants and bone structure.

U.K. legislation passed back in 1978 called the Protection of Children Act criminalizes the creation of nude or pseudo-nude photos of children. Using the full body scan on anyone under the age of 18 would immediately place airport security staff in direct contravention of that law, effectivley breaking the law and would be liable to prosecution.

Airport security chiefs thought they could sidestep the act intended to protect children by having their parents consent, but that simply puts the burden of prosecution on parents for allowing their children to be photographed in a revealing way.

A Manchester Airport spokesman confirmed that staff had been told not to allow children to be scanned by the new equipment, saying: “Our lawyers and child welfare groups have warned us this is a legal grey area.

We do not want to open ourselves or our staff to the possibility of legal action, so we have decided children will not be subjected to these scans and will continue to face normal security checks.”