New scanners break child porn laws

No doubt everyone has seen this via Drudge but an intersesting accident at the intersection of security and civil liberties nonetheless:

The rapid introduction of full body scanners at British airports threatens to breach child protection laws which ban the creation of indecent images of children, the Guardian has learned.

Privacy campaigners claim the images created by the machines are so graphic they amount to "virtual strip-searching" and have called for safeguards to protect the privacy of passengers involved.

 . . .

They also face demands from civil liberties groups for safeguards to ensure that images from the £80,000 scanners, including those of celebrities, do not end up on the internet. The Department for Transport confirmed that the "child porn" problem was among the "legal and operational issues" now under discussion in Whitehall after Gordon Brown's announcement on Sunday that he wanted to see their "gradual" introduction at British airports.

. . .

The decision followed a warning from Terri Dowty, of Action for Rights of Children, that the scanners could breach the Protection of Children Act 1978, under which it is illegal to create an indecent image or a "pseudo-image" of a child.

Comments

[Human-Stupidity.com]

Great Blog. The body scanner is a new one. Insane to trade security against child porn witch hunt mania.

I have a lot of posts devoted to this issue.
http://human-stupidity.com/irrationality/stupid-dogma/child-porn-witch-hunt
I am more interested about psychological issues, about how can people develop such irrational laws, such a fear of child porn so that looking at photos is a bigger crime then robbing and killing. I am waiting for a comment on yesterday's Supreme court ruling that people who watched photos could be held indefinitely

I gladly accept comments and collaboration.

[Tana]

I think it's ridiculous. Everything is being made illegal in this country because somebody somewhere had a problem with something. It's about safety. Not sexual assault. It's either be scanned and be protected or no scan and risk being a victim of terrorist attacks. So if people don't want scans, then they don't need to be saying anything about law enforcement not doing their job when they get on a plane that could very well be targeted for terrorist activity

[Linda B.]

The scanners and "pat downs" are nothing other than legalized sexual assault. I'd rather take my chances on the possibility of a terror attack than the certainty of sexual assault every time I have to fly.

[rodsmith3510]

i disagree. People are the ones who created the sex offender fear stupidty...now they can choke in them.

as for protecting our planes from terrorits...Well if we'd get our noses out of the worlds business and leave them alone to handle their own problems. You WOULDN'T HAVE A PROBLEM WITH IT.

[Joe]

The scanners are designed to PROTECT people, not to create child or adult pornography. People are taking this way too far. I'm not happy about the prospect of having to be scanned the next time I fly, but how else do we protect airplanes from being blown up by terrorists?