Full Body Airport Xray

Currently the standard airport xray consists of your baggage going through an xray machine to see whatmay be inside and the passenger gong through a metal detector.

If the person sets of the metal detector then they will be scanned over with a handheld metal detector and made to show what may be setting the detector off Normally this may be a watch, belt buckle or even the studs on a pair of jeans.

New full body airport xray technology has been tested on a small scale in a few airports across the EU and USA, the idea is people being put through a full body xray to see what they may be carrying.

The technology is incredible and has many positives that support its inclusion in airport security but there is one fundamental flaw.

The flaw with this new full body xray technology is that it not only shows what the person may be carrying, it also shows the person in a naked state.

There is talk that although the person is naked iis not of digital photo quality and the person cannot be known as facial features are not seen.

Fundamentally though this does go against a persons human rights as they are subjected to having their naked body seen by those taking the photo without real consent.

Imagine that you have family in another country you wish to visit regularly yet the only way to do so is to go by plane. This would mean that everytime you wish to see your family you have to have your full body xray taken for all to see your birhday suit.

If this invasive security does not invade your human rights as you have no choice then I do not know what would!

How can this technology be implemented without prior consent from those that its being used on?

Will the security officials think your carrying something illegal if you are unwilling to have this done?

It seems that the European Commission is one such poitical entity that wishes to force the full body airport scanner in without so much as a thought for the European people and those who visit.

The European Commission wishes to push wider testing of the technology in to other airports and try to gain MEP backing for full implementation.

The issues is that the European Commission has not consulted the MEP's enough and the safeguards in place for this new technology are extremely vague at best.

To put a further damaging perspective on this technology it could be found that it falls in to the hands of criminal minds due to ineffective regulation.

Imagine logging on to the internet to find these naked xray pictures on a website, it could be you find one that you sure is of your naked body.

Something to bear in mind is that what regulation will be in place for the age of people scanned and the sex of the person scanning.

Imagine children being scanned for apparent "Terrorism" because of ill minded individuals working at the airport.

You could also have one sex only scanning the opposite sex for their own gratification....we just dont know what criminal minds could think of!

29th October 2008 - EU Lawmakers have put a delay on the introduction of the full body xray machines until further studies have been carried out on the impact they have on human health and travellers privacy