TSA pat down of a child: Do you think it's OK or abuse or have another thought on it?

[PureBloodMuggle]

Apparently news story this story has caused a massive stir and a divided over the internet.

Some saying that it's nothing sinister and others that its child molestation.

Personally whilst I think that patting down a child is totally OTT (never had any dealings with the TSA so don't know if it's standard or not) I wouldn't put in the child molestation category.

I can't see the problem to be honest, the pat down was very business like and the little girl seemed bemused but not distressed.

I think the TSA have a point that if they have a great big "dom't check kids" loophole it will eventually be exploited in the most unthinkable way...

Just people making mountains out of molehills - tut

I think the sort of people who are likely to try to smuggle a bomb/drugs onto a plane are exactly the sort of people who wouldn't think twice about using a little kid to do it.

This is fine with me. I would have no problem with my child being patted down in the same manner as that little girl did.

We have been pulled out of line and searched before, I don't care, better that then being blown apart.

Precisely Morloth; terrorists are not known for their scruples.

Seems fine to me. ds was patted down when he was 8 - no biggie. Actually it was quite funny!

Oh and he had a plastic gun, the type you get as fairground consolation prizes, confiscated at Gatwick - go figure!

Oh I do agree that if they (TSA) made it policy that they don't search kids then it opens up that avenue with a bright flashing welcome sign pointing towards it! I had thought that they just mightn't (mind you it's not much different is it officall not doing it and everyone knowing they didn't do it)

Now I think about it whilst I thought it were OTT to search a 6 year old it certainly isn't beyond possibilty that someone whould use a child whose mission was to.

I've been trying to figure out why the parents where videoing it too - didn't they take great exception to being searched?

Our American cousins are a bit bonkers anyway.

They've just sent a 21yr old to prison for 6 months for making a video looking like he was singing a rude song in front of school children.....except he actually didnt. He sang a normal song in school then edited it afterwards just to make it look like he did.

OK, what the guy did wasn't funny and very misguided. But to charge him with making child abuse material?? To threaten him with 20 years in prison?? Talk about OTT

[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1358142/You-tube-prankster-Evan-Emory-faces-20-years-jail-manufacturing-child-porn.html Source]]

We fly as a family 6 or 7 times a year (from the ME) dh probably twice as much (travelling to the USA usually involves him being taken into a seperate room and "interogated")!
DS been patted down several times since he was 3 and dd had her first when she was 4.

Never had a problem with it, the security person has always checked with me and made sure I was ok with it as well as telling ds/dd what they were doing.

(dh only look worried when the rubber gloves come out)

OMG, how do the wee girl's parents figure out that her pat-down is groping? If airport security were to stop frisking/patting-down children, then we'd see more planes being blown up. Do these parents not realise that terrorists will exploit any avenue to further their cause. There is no such thing as a terrorist with a heart. This is coming from a person who lived during the peak of the troubles in NI.

Didn't look a big deal - my mum used to use me to smuggle her extra fags and other goods through customs. We thought it was funny at the time but kids could easily be used for smuggling drugs and things.