TSA in the News. Pat down of a 6 year old

The TSA is in the news yet again but, this time it is for the pat down of a 6 year old girl. The video of the young girl getting a pat down by the TSA was taken at the New Orleans airport. The video was posted last week by the girls father and the outrage came in the part of the video where the TSA agent appears to put her fingertips inside the waistband of the girl’s pants.

Since the video was posted TSA released a statement saying that the agent was following current standard operating procedure. Supposedly there is a modified pat down done for children 12 and under but for security reasons that cannot tell the public what the differences are. So the real question is – was this a violation of the young girls privacy? Like anything, there are two sides to this. Being in the travel industry there are certain things I try to warn my kids about. Particularly, when we are traveling by airplane they know that they must abide by whatever rules the TSA tells us. We all want to travel safely and they are the ones in charge so we assume they are doing everything possible to protect us. Yet, we continue to read how there are gaps in the security and that the system is flawed just like any other. I try to put myself in the place of these parents how would I feel if this were my daughter being patted down? Was it really necessary to go into the waistband of her pants? What are your thoughts on this?