The Transportation Security Administration has had its share of flubs, such as when it cleared a passenger for takeoff despite his being 9 years old, unaccompanied by an adult, and without a boarding pass. The agency has also made attempts to eliminate some of the headaches of airport screenings, by, for example, allowing passengers to bypass the regular security protocol by paying a premium.
Now it is seeking to make nice with its youngest victims by charming them with a cartoon video (h/t AmericaBlog). In principle there is nothing wrong with preparing children for the rigors of airport security, so long as it done in an honest and above-board manner. Though you wouldn’t expect the kiddie’s video (which features dogs in place of humans) to show an hysterical toddler undergoing a pat-down by a total stranger, you would have expected that by now the TSA was past that sort of idiocy. That they are not was evidenced last December when a child with a crippling bone disease was detained for an hour when a swab turned up traces of explosives on her hands. When it was determined that the child lived on a farm and handled fertilizer (which tests positive), she was waved through. What remains unexplained about the incident is why the child was patted down in defiance of the TSA’s expressed policy (hinted at in the video) that children under 12 are exempted from pat-downs.
The video is not the TSA’s first effort to seem less bogeyman-like to children. In 2010, the agency resorted to the ploy of telling children that pat-downs are “a game.” That insidious technique was abandoned after child safety experts advised that the touching-is-a-game line is commonly used among sexual predators to initiate inappropriate contact.
Related Articles
- Child with crippling bone disease held by TSA after testing positive for explosives
- PETA stoops to new low with billboards targeting kids
- Man at airport check-in finds that someone using his ID checked in earlier
- TSA antics at Phoenix airport draw ire of disabled travelers
- MSNBC’s Krystal Ball exploits own 5-year-old daughter on TV to promote gay marriage
- Obama exploiting innocent kids to promote gun control: The movie
- 9-year-old boards plane alone … and without ticket (Update)
- How much would you pay to get the TSA to grope you less? Do I hear $85?
- TSA’s answer to mom reluctant to open baby food jars? Give her a pat-down
- Video of the TSA “molesting” a 3-year-old and other horror stories
- TSA revises child pat-down policy
- TSA telling children ‘pat-down is a game’ sends a wrong message
- Video of TSA patting down 3-year-old in wheelchair
