Metro

JFK and La Guardia getting body scanners that show more cartoonlike pictures

Some airport body-scanner pictures are going from R-rated to PG-13.

Scanners that create creepily clear images of travelers’ naked bodies are being swapped out of big airports in favor of newer machines that show more cartoonlike pictures, the Transportation Security Administration says.

TSA officials are pulling a giant scanner switcheroo — shifting the older scanners, called backscatter imagers, away from big airports to small ones.

Kennedy and La Guardia are among the airports getting the newer machines.

Other airports getting newer scanners are O’Hare, in Chicago; Logan, in Boston; and airports serving Los Angeles; Orlando, Fla.; and Charlotte, NC.

The main reason for the switch is that the newer machines can move passengers more quickly, TSA spokesman David Castelveter said.

The older, more revealing machines are being shifted to smaller airports.

Backscatter imagers have been junked by European airports over health and safety concerns. But TSA officials deny that the machines pose any hazard.

TSA is making the changeover with its existing equipment and isn’t buying any new machines, Castelveter said.