English Literature

The event on the 25th December, 2009 led to enormous changes to the mode of security screening at the airports. A Nigerian man, Christmas Bomber as he later became to be called, attempted to detonate an explosive device which was stitched into his underclothes. This terrorist attack attempt occurred on the Northwest Airlines Flight 253 that was flying to Detroit from Amsterdam. However, without any fatalities, the plane made an abrupt landing in Detroit. This terrorist attack attempt led to the application of full-body screening at the airports internationally to crack down terrorism (Altarejos, 2009).

The full-body scanners take an x-ray picture of an air traveler and have a capacity to peer under the clothing of the passengers to reveal any hidden bomb or weapon possessed by passengers on their bodies. Supporters of the system of checking using the full-body scanners have argued that the system could have detected the device contained in the under-wear of the Christmas Bomber. It is also believed that the scanners have a potential to thwart terrorism and save the lives of civilians.

The opponents of the method of full- body scanning consider the method as an intrusion on someones privacy since it allows the technicians at the airport working with the scanners to view a clear outline of the bodily contours and the genitalia. There is a wider concern especially from the individuals from religious and cultural backgrounds having great sensitivities towards pictures showing naked bodies and genitalia. The scanners are also believed to violate the laws governing child pornography hence a call to stop the application of full-body scanners. The detection ability of non-metallic materials, weapons or bombs inside the body cavities of potential bombers has also been a question of concern in the implementation of the full-body scanners. Perhaps, one of the most talked of risk of using the full-body scanners is the radiation exposure risk. Radiations used to scan passengers can be harmful when used in some amounts. The risk becomes augmented when a large population of people is exposed to such radiation. DNA damage occurs in individual genes when exposed to radiations. Mutations in the structure of important genes coding for crucial proteins which carry out vital physiological processes can lead to the abnormality in the function of the gene (Atassi, 2009). Therefore, the scanners have potential health risk among the air travelers.

The most important concern in the application of full-body scanners is the consistency of the system of scanning with the rights of individuals. The supporters of the system of scanning point out that the protection of lives of the civilians is more important that the preservation of privacy. Proponents argue that privacy only meets limits when other peoples lives are at risk and since the scanners are used to protect the majority from getting hurt or killed in terrorist attack, privacy can be compromised for this purpose. In Germany, supporters of the full-body scanners warn that the opponents of the method should mind the lives of others and not their security.

On the other side, there is a strong argument over the preservation of privacy among the opponents. The groups opposing the method of scanning using full-body scanners argue that the granting of the government authorities the permission to scrutinize the bodies is a tremendous intrusion of privacy and the corresponding benefits are impossible to identify. The technology of using full-body scanners can be abused at the same time and be used in an unacceptable way of creating fun in security industries (NDTV, 2010).

On the point of privacy rights, the opponents of the technology argue that the privacy rights need not to be sacrificed for the reason of maintaining security. It does not mean a thing to scrutinize eight-year old girls and boys and old grandmothers and fathers in the name of maintaining security in the airplanes. A lot of individuals under this age bracket have been exposed to the scanning without the need to do so. The procedure mutilates privacy rights and at the same time the results do not show any viable benefit.

Still on privacy, a lot of individuals, not suspected to being criminals, are being intruded into their privacy by full-body scanners. The security agency has so far captured a lot of images from individuals, American air passengers, not really suspected of any wrong doings. It has been argued that the technology of full-body scanners violate the sensitivities of cultures. It should be a concern that some cultures such as the Muslims do not permit any opposite sex person to view the naked body of others (Debatepedia, 2010). This aspect becomes amplified when the Muslims will be deterred from taking flights because of this element of cultural sensitivity.

The proponents of the technology do not value the individual privacy rather they value the protection against terror attack. According to this group, terrorist attack claims greater privacy violations than even the scanning the images of the air passengers. Supporters of the technology of full-body scanners believe that the detonation of an airplane causes the worst privacy deprivation on a person greater than the full-body scanners.

Supporters of full-body scanners provide defense on their argument of supporting the full-body scanners that the outlines obtained from the full-body scanners can be obscured whenever privacy needs to be protected. The faces can greatly be obscured and the bodies can be reduced to an outline equivalent to a chalk. The measures have been proposed to eliminate the aspect of violation of privacy when using full-body scanners. This effort is in accordance to the child pornography and privacy laws. On privacy, those who support the technology of scanners have reciprocated on the arguments of the opponents that full-body scanners are a true violation of child pornography laws (Eaton, 2009). They readily point out that the images produced by the scanners are not real, what they call, ghost like and cannot serve as pornographic images for video production or any entertainment.

In the preparing of the images in full-body scanners, security personnel who are viewing the scans are located in a different room from the person being scanned. This implies that the technicians are not able to see the person entering the scanner. This criterion can protect the rights of privacy and the associations of the images obtained with any persons identity. This is yet another defense from the supporters of the technology of full-body scanners which tries to justify the wrong doings of the technology (Alterejos, 2009).

The design of the technology of full-body scanners can be modified, the proponents argue saying that after modifying the scanners, the images will not be bale to be stored in computers and other gadgets for future viewing and modifications or editing. The modification in the technology, according to the proponents, can eliminate several risks that scanners can save the images for personal uses. At the same, the modification allows for the restriction that no images are available for the use over the internet.

For the supporters full-body scanners can be used on an optional ground. The procedure is never compulsory and in case some of the groups of individuals cannot prefer it, they can readily opt not to be screened using the full-body scanners. An equivalent screening for the passengers who may find their privacy rights not maintained can opt for a screening for a full pat-down procedure. This way, the passengers have full options to either use the full-body scanners or the full pat-down method (Debatepedia, 2010). Through these choices, a passenger is not coerced into a form of screening which may have a possibility of exposing the private images of his or her body. For instance, in May 2010, The Canadian Air Transport Security Authority implemented a program where the passengers received voluntary body scans without most important complaints.

The application of scanners which have software installed in them in the scanning of the passengers can help avoid the privacy issues in the technology. These types of scanners have been suggested as a better option for scanning air passengers. The software used can utilize the intelligence similar to the human eye to detect the potential weapons carried by the terrorist in their under clothes. The computer with the software is bale to look at the picture of a person and can give analysis of the picture without necessarily using human screeners to watch over. This will greatly reduce the issues connected to the abuse privacy.

The full-body scanners have been seen as a method of abuse of the laws protecting the children. The rapid implementation of the full-body scanners at the British airports have particularly been a breach to the child protection laws. The child protection laws have a ban on the creation of the images of the children which are regarded as indecent. There is a big risk of the technology that the naked pictures of the children could be exposed over the internet. The scans of the images from the children can be abused over the internet when they are being shared by multiple users not intended to be security agents (Eaton, 2009). The technology of the full-body scanners can interfere with the rights of the children even when the abuses are prevented by avoiding the spreading of the pictures or the images over the internet. This means that it is not right for the security screeners or the technicians working at the airport to view the nude images of the children.

The technology of full-body scanners makes the parents and the children to be uncomfortable. There is a growing insecurity among the parents over their childrens pictures. The fate of the pictures is not known. They may end up being used by the kidnappers in the mission of pedophilic activity. The viewing of the childrens genitalia and the buttocks will expose the children at risk of being hunted by the pedophiles and internet kidnappers. All these events result to the parents developing some kind of insecurity over their children.

A controversial opinion emanates from the supporters of the technology of full-body scanners over the abuse or violation of the rights of the children. They add that the children should be scanned and there should not be such a thing like linking the technology of full-body scanners to child pornography. The police officers do possess the child pornography every time and they can in addition, distribute the images to the prosecutors when evidence is needed. The defense lawyers act according to the evidence provided (Atassi, 2009). There is therefore no violation of the children laws according to the supporters of the technology sicken the pictures possessed by the police officers do not represent child pornography. In this view, the supporters of the technology of full-body scanners gain support in the justifying the technology.

There is some debate over the exemption of the minors from the procedure of body scanning. This is the solution given by the supporters of the technology in an effort to ensure that the security is provided in the expense of personal rights. Already, such policies of exempting the minors from the scanning have been implemented without the need to stop the practice of scanning the air passengers for security purposes. Another effort to apply the technology of full-body scanners is the modification of the scanners in order to accommodate the issue of protecting the children against abuse over their rights (NDTV, 2010).

In general, it should be identified that the use of the technology which reveals the images of people is not acceptable in the society. The privacy rights are highly abused when such technology is used. The exposure of ones genitalia or naked body and the viewing of the images produced are also not acceptable in most societies. This therefore calls for a change in the operation of security checks in the airports. Decent technologies can be applied in security checks which take the interests of the personal rights.