predators
TSA frisks groom children to cooperate with sex predators, abuse expert says
"How can experts working at the TSA be so incredibly misinformed and
misguided to suggest that full body pat downs for children be portrayed as a
'game'?" Wooden asked in an email. "To do so is completely contrary to what
we in the sexual abuse prevention field have been trying to accomplish for
the past thirty years."
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.
Children "don't have the sophistication" to distinguish between a pat-down
carried out by an airport security officer and an assault by a sexual
predator, he said.
The TSA policy could "desensitize children to inappropriate touch and
ultimately make it easier for sexual offenders to prey on our children,"
Wooden added.
Following an outcry last month over the use on children of "enhanced
pat-downs" -- which involve the touching of genitals -- the TSA announced a
new "modified" pat-down for children under 12. However, as the LA Times
noted, the new rules are "unclear" on whether TSA agents can touch
children's genitals.
Addressing the controversy over pat-downs of children last month, TSA
regional security director James Marchand told the press the TSA was working
on new practices to make children more comfortable during the pat-down
process.
"You try to make it as best you can for that child to come through. If you
can come up with some kind of a game to play with a child, it makes it a lot
easier," said Marchand, promising to make it part of TSA training.
Wooden, who has testified before Congress on child safety issues on numerous
occasions, says he was told by a TSA agent that the practice has been used.
"How can experts working at the TSA be so incredibly misinformed and
misguided to suggest that full body pat downs for children be portrayed as a
game?" Wooden asked in an email. "To do so is completely contrary to what we
in the sexual abuse prevention field have been trying to accomplish for the
past thirty years."
He added: "This policy is also incredibly insensitive to the countless
victims who have already been traumatized by unwanted touching in their
lives and could be re-traumatized by such pat-downs."
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