I do know that my grandkids are taught by their parents ( my kids) not to ever talk to strangers.
I was taught the same by my parents. And I did not EVER talk to strangers.

Can't you just tell the TSA agent that your kids are mute / can't speak? Easy enough solution.

Stranger danger is a ridiculous concept. So now your children aren't allowed to buy transportation tickets / food / ask people for directions / etc?

.... and then the TSA plays its passive-aggressive card and does something that isn't an easy enough solution. Sometimes but not always.

What do you think the TSA agent will do when he/she catches the accompanying adult passenger in a lie? ;)

A child choosing to go up to inquire, in the absence of bait, to protect the child's own self-interest is different than a child being chosen by a strange adult as a target to exploit for information and who knows what else. The difference between your scenario and what the TSA is doing is substantial. Stranger danger has been a rather useful concept. Perhaps you or people about whom you care have never been approached by perverted strangers while traveling? I wish I could say the same thing was true for everyone.

In this case the child is actively approaching the TSA for screening. Which is exactly what you describe as being acceptable - they are going through screening their own self-interest (since they presumably want to go somewhere).

And yes, the vast majority of travellers are decent human beings. Simple speech isn't going to bring the world down (it's ironic that the USA, the country where usually it's expected for you to talk with strangers whenever possible, is so paranoid about this).

Do you have children? A young child has no concept of "actively approaching the TSA for screening" or "going through screening their own self-interest".

A child is standing in a line with his/her parent just as in the grocery store. TSA has absolutely no business attempting to communicate with minors without the permission of the parent.

Given your claim about what you think I described, it's clear to me that you need to read what I wrote and better understand the words I posted.

A child doing what an accompanying adult is doing is not the same thing as a child choosing to go up to inquire, absent bait, to protect the child's own self-interest.

A child choosing to go up to inquire, in the absence of bait, to protect the child's own self-interest is different than a child being chosen by a strange adult as a target to exploit for information and who knows what else.

People choosing to interrogate children without the prior consent of the parents/guardian/in loco parentis are not all decent human beings when the childrens' accompanying adults are right there to approve or deny the interaction. The TSA really shouldn't be giving candy and stickers to children without asking the accompanying adults for permission first; and the same ought to go for this TSA "human trafficking" interrogation, an interrogation with disparate outcome rooted in TSA employees' racism and sexism. And yet, even with the best of intentions, the TSA grooms children this way and increases the odds of them becoming an unwitting victim of perverts.

By the way, do you know what percentage of minors in the US will become victims of attempted or actual sexual assault -- statutory or otherwise -- before they are 18? And you can bet that more US airline passengers are likely to have been the target of perverts somewhere than have been the target of human traffickers anywhere.

It doesn't take a majority of people to be dangerous for a danger to be realized. Isn't that the TSA's excuse for the TSA's ways? ;) Stranger danger is less of a ridiculous concept than what the TSA is doing to children and their accompanying adults at airports.

Could very well be that the TSA screener questioning a child is a predator. Best to approach the event from that perspective. Better safe than sorry.

The training has the TSA TDCs asking the child for the child's name, asking the child who is the person accompanying them, and asking the child if the child knows where they are going and can tell them the place to where they are headed.

If you witness all of the above at the TDC, then you should know what the TDC thinks of the passengers.

The TSA engages in an obnoxious approach at heart by asking questions of the child while acting as if the accompanying parent/guardian/in loco parentis isn't there and/or is a criminal child trafficker.

Ha!

Years ago, I planned a birthday surprise for my niece. I packed her bag and everyone but her knew what was going on. She thought I was taking her school the next morning and was snoozing in the back seat until we got to the airport, and even then, I didn't let her know what was up until we were actually at the gate.

I was flying her to Disneyland for a surprise blow-out birthday weekend.

If the TSOs were insisting on interrogating kids, they might have ruined our entire trip. She wasn't flying with a parent, we don't share the same last name and she was in 6th grade, no school ID - and she didn't have a clue where she was going, why or for how long.

I trust a TSO around my kid far less than I do cops or teachers.

Kids don't see cops and teachers groping adults between the legs, rubbing their buttocks or sticking their hands inside clothing. They would know something was off if a cop or teacher tried to tell them it was OK.

OTOH, kids do see TSOs fondling their parents, publicly touching them in ways that the parents probably don't even touch each other in front of their kids in the privacy of their own home. They see their parents submit without protest or for fear of consequences. They are terribly at risk from any TSA predator precisely because if a TSO tells them groping is OK, they've see their own parents submit to it - in public, no less.

Those same kids would get suspended from school, if not expelled, if they were caught playing TSA grope-down on the playground.

Seems to clearly exceed a Limited Administrative Search for Weapons, Incendiaries, and Explosives.

DHS OIG reports would be warrantied.

Great posting. My oldest/and her friend was approched by a child molester in 1987 in Sweden. Not in an airport though.
But thanks to her/ her friend knowing not to trust strangers they got away.
Could have ended really bad. Yes the man was caught. The friends family was all cops so we got the man.
It taught her something and me also.

Found this on @TSA this morning:

All in the name of "think of the children". This is part of the TSA's ridiculous anti-human trafficking, anti-kidnapping effort. Also anti-fake ID/identification game.

I found this through the link, but I don't see it pop up on either @tsa or @asktsa.

Look for it here: https://twitter.com/search?f=tweets&...40tsa&src=typd