Daniel Tencer reports:
An expert in the fight against child sexual abuse is raising the alarm about a technique the TSA is reportedly using to get children to co-operate with airport pat-downs: calling it a “game”.
Ken Wooden, founder of Child Lures Prevention, says the TSA’s recommendation that children be told the pat-down is a “game” is potentially putting children in danger.
Telling a child that they are engaging in a game is “one of the most common ways” that sexual predators use to convince children to engage in inappropriate contact, Wooden told Raw Story.
Read more on Raw Story.
I agree that this is a terrible idea. I’ve already blogged a number of times about my concern that schools are grooming children to have no expectation of privacy but this is approach to groping children is even more dangerous than those misguided people who try to get children to take medicine by telling them it’s “candy.”
As I’ve also commented before, I think the entire TSA groping/aggressive patdowns are particularly problematic for the disabled and abuse victims, the latter of whom may be at risk of being “triggered” if they have Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. In commenting on these latter groups this week, John Pistole said the agency may change its screening rules for victims of sex abuse.
Having to identify yourself to a total stranger as a victim of sex abuse is totally inhumane and outrageous.
TSA can and needs to find a way to screen passengers without degrading or humiliating citizens who are merely exercising their right to air travel. We are not criminals and we are not terrorists and we will not be treated as such. Nor should we be required to reveal our most intimate and private agonies as part of the price of air travel.