Customs at the Airport

[Jonboy]

Hi Guys, I have been informed that Customs at the Airport have been again stopping passengers with laptops. The purpose is to check the hard drive for illegal materiel
Now I travel through the airport once a month and am concerned by this. My taste in Porn is for late 20s to mid 30s and the normal shagging and good photography, nothing kiddie or illegal. Now can someone tell me
A) Is this happening
B) Is it allowed, in Germany they are allowed, so long as they suspect you as an individual, not just take a random sample of travellers.
C) What happens if the Customs officer see my collection of Porn , mainly downloaded from European and American sites and states that it is illegal
Sorry to sound alarmist on this but I am concerned by this

[Illinoisblue]

Where did you hear this?

Sounds highly unlikely that Customs Officers would have either the time or the power to check the hard drives of passengers' laptops.

[Rude Boy]

I've had my laptop inspected a few times but just to see that it is a working computer and not a cunningly disguised bomb. The customs people don't appear to give a shit about the camera cases, dozens of rolls of film, lights and other gear I've got with me so I doubt there's much to worry about.

[Dace]

I've never had my laptop checked and I fly in and out of Amsterdam/Rotterdam from work fairly often

[Jonboy]

Hi Guys, I heard about this over the break. The person who told me stated that it had happened at Heathrow, he also went on to say it had happened to passengers on the Eurostar, but that was in the past.

[Illinoisblue]

I think as Rudeboy says, they may check it to make sure it really is a computer and not an atomic bomb or something but as for individually checking the hard drives I doubt that very much.

[KayJay]

Used to do it in Birmingham Airport before 9/11 even for domestic flights. Got asked to turn mine on once, opend case, pressed the power switch. Laptop displayed "Reset Failure" or something and switched itself off.

[mart]

If you are really worried, just drag and drop your collection into one of the standard folders, remembering what you have named it .
I don't think they have an electronic porn sniffer....lol

Mart