Barrel Locks in airports?

I worked in an airport for over 7 years and went through security at least a dozen times a day. Basically there is no simple answer - any amount of metal can set off a metal detector and each one has different settings. The airport ones are designed to trigger at particular levels but you always have more metal on you than just your chastity lock - zippers, buttons, jewellery, watches, shoelace eyelets, belt buckles, surgical implants, you name it.

The detectors tend to measure the level of metal detected in different zones - top, middle and bottom. Any zone above the level will trigger and the cumulative total of all zones will have a trigger level too. The security staff have access to a display that tells them the zone that triggered a detector. (I definitely triggered the detectors more per shift after I got my nipples pierced. That is not a lot of extra metal but was enough to probably trigger the cumulative metal total more often).

On top of that, the way you walk through a scanner can trigger it - too fast, too slow, too light-footed, too heavy-footed. As can going through before it is ready for you, especially tailgating. Any contact with the detector’s sides will trigger it. And on top of that, security personnel can trigger them at will. Officially this is to make subjecting suspicious characters to enhanced screening justifiable - they’re not patting you down because they don’t like the look of you, they’re doing it because they have to because you set off the detector. But it is also used to inconvenience passengers that have been rude or otherwise irritated colleagues elsewhere in the airport.

Another consideration, in the UK anyway, is that the regulations require a minimum amount of enhanced searches per 100 passengers and a level of random searches. Airports achieve this by having the detectors set to trigger at random to ensure these minimum requirements are exceeded. Also, specific settings on a detector will depend on the national security threat level on that day - the higher the level, the more stringent the security measure which means the more sensitive the settings and the more thorough the searches.

A hand wand will narrow down any excess metal very effectively and any competent hand search will find a chastity device. The reality is that the crotch is one of the highest risk areas for concealment of weapons and contraband so anything unusual there will have to be investigated to the security officer’s satisfaction.

Basically, no matter how careful you are and even if you have no metal on your device at all, if you go through airport security you may find your secret exposed to overworked security personnel. There’s no law in the UK against wearing chastity devices in airports but you are basically running the risk of exposing your fetish to a non-consenting third party.

As a member of staff, hand searches for me were fairly cursory but even so, the majority of them would’ve found a chastity device if I’d ever worn one at work. As a member of the public the search would have been more thorough and almost certainly would’ve found the device. (Test this yourself by running a hand up the inside of your leg to the top - you will feel the base ring or tube almost every time). And bear in mind that the hand search here is specifically designed to identify anything unusual in your groin area.

In my time working there I became convinced that there was no possible way to guarantee not being detected even without any metal in the device. Those who get through ok are probably more lucky than anything else.

I had no experience with body scanners.

 

Last spring (pre covid) my Wife and I vacationed in Bahamas. She made it clear I was to remained locked. On the outbound trip the alarm went off. I was asked to go to full body scanner. As I did so I told the security person that I was wearing body jewelry. They didn't care and after the scan j continued on my way

My Wife was amused the whole time

 

But I recognize going into a building for work meeting (or traveling with work coleagues) would be very different

 

I've visited the Magistrates Courts wearing a full metal cage with barrel locks also The Fort with conventional padlock in it. Went through the scanner and been checked out with the hand scanner because I set off the big scanner.
What with my bike gear metal zips on jacket trousers and boots with studs metal plates on the boots too and belt buckles the hand scanner goes loopy too. I just tell them I do have a PA could it be that setting it off and start reaching for my belt buckle as I say you can see it if you want. I have almost always been waved striaght through with no hassle.
Its no big deal really what is the worst they can do .. look at it and giggle... who gives a damn,

Although I do understand the being with family issue is different.