Govt plays down child porn fears over new scanners
2 hours, 20 minutes ago
LONDON (AFP) - The government sought on Tuesday to allay fears that body scanners being introduced at airports would break laws against creating indecent images of children.
Transport officials said the scanners would be introduced at Heathrow within weeks and then rolled out to other airports as part of efforts to tighten security after the failed US airliner bomb plot on Christmas Day.
Privacy campaigners told the Guardian the images created by the machines were so graphic they amounted to "virtual strip searching" and have called for safeguards to protect the privacy of passengers involved.
Terri Dowty, of civil rights group Action On Rights For Children, said the scanners could breach child protection laws, which made it illegal to create an indecent image or a "pseudo-image" of a child.
"They do not have the legal power to use full body scanners in this way," she told the newspaper.
Rights group Liberty urged body scanning to be used only when necessary and with "the strongest degree of privacy protection."
"Any response to terrorism must be proportionate and respectful of the human rights values of dignity, privacy and equal treatment," the group said in a statement.
A Department for Transport spokesman said a code of practice was being drawn up for airport staff who will use the scanners.
"We understand the concerns expressed about privacy in relation to the deployment of body scanners," he said.
"It is vital staff are properly trained and we are developing a code of practice to ensure these concerns are properly taken into account.
"Existing safeguards also mean those operating scanners are separated from the device, so unable to see the person to whom the image relates, and these anonymous images are deleted immediately," he added.
Another spokesman said operator BAA would introduce the scanners "initially at Heathrow within weeks, and we are consulting urgently with the airport industry on how they might best be introduced at other UK airports."
BAA -- which also runs Stansted airport in London, and Southampton, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen airports -- has said it will introduce scanners "as soon as practical."
Some countries, led by the United States, have announced additional security measures at airports since a Nigerian man was charged with trying to blow up a US-bound jet on December 25.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, reportedly confessed to being trained by an Al-Qaeda bombmaker in Yemen for the suicide mission on the Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit.
It was foiled when explosives allegedly sewn into the man's underwear failed to detonate, and passengers jumped on him.
2 hours, 20 minutes ago
LONDON (AFP) - The government sought on Tuesday to allay fears that body scanners being introduced at airports would break laws against creating indecent images of children.
Transport officials said the scanners would be introduced at Heathrow within weeks and then rolled out to other airports as part of efforts to tighten security after the failed US airliner bomb plot on Christmas Day.
Privacy campaigners told the Guardian the images created by the machines were so graphic they amounted to "virtual strip searching" and have called for safeguards to protect the privacy of passengers involved.
Terri Dowty, of civil rights group Action On Rights For Children, said the scanners could breach child protection laws, which made it illegal to create an indecent image or a "pseudo-image" of a child.
"They do not have the legal power to use full body scanners in this way," she told the newspaper.
Rights group Liberty urged body scanning to be used only when necessary and with "the strongest degree of privacy protection."
"Any response to terrorism must be proportionate and respectful of the human rights values of dignity, privacy and equal treatment," the group said in a statement.
A Department for Transport spokesman said a code of practice was being drawn up for airport staff who will use the scanners.
"We understand the concerns expressed about privacy in relation to the deployment of body scanners," he said.
"It is vital staff are properly trained and we are developing a code of practice to ensure these concerns are properly taken into account.
"Existing safeguards also mean those operating scanners are separated from the device, so unable to see the person to whom the image relates, and these anonymous images are deleted immediately," he added.
Another spokesman said operator BAA would introduce the scanners "initially at Heathrow within weeks, and we are consulting urgently with the airport industry on how they might best be introduced at other UK airports."
BAA -- which also runs Stansted airport in London, and Southampton, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen airports -- has said it will introduce scanners "as soon as practical."
Some countries, led by the United States, have announced additional security measures at airports since a Nigerian man was charged with trying to blow up a US-bound jet on December 25.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, reportedly confessed to being trained by an Al-Qaeda bombmaker in Yemen for the suicide mission on the Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit.
It was foiled when explosives allegedly sewn into the man's underwear failed to detonate, and passengers jumped on him.
